Radio Apocalypse
by webminky
Summary: The world isn't quite as dead as it was in the film and the convoy is a bit bigger. It's a whole new world and about 100 people led by a feisty redhead are about to explore it. Jill is here, LJ isn't about to die, similar plot points throughout, but a whole new story. Some love, some laughs and a ton of adventure.
1. Chapter 1

"_And I'm pouring crimson regret and betrayal, I'm dying, praying, bleeding and screaming..."_

Claire's head rested in her hand against the grate blocking the open window shaking from side to side and rolling her eyes. Ever since Mikey had rigged up the studio, the convoy members had taken turns at what they called Radio Apocalypse. Claire had been against the idea at first, but as Mikey had pointed out, anyone tuning into the emergency channel would still contact them regardless as to whether they played music or droned on about food and supplies.

He had a point, so Claire had agreed, as long as after every song they made the usual broadcast. Now, anyone who wanted to, could book some time in Mikey's van to broadcast to the convoy and any listening survivors. Every vehicle in the 95 person strong convoy had their radio tuned in to break up the monotony of the drive across the USA that Claire led them on in order to keep them alive at the end of the world.

Kmart had booked the afternoon slot and Claire had been subjected to 2 hours of depressing emo music.

The music wound down and Kmart's voice came over the radio. "You're listening to Kmart on Radio Apocalypse, if there are any survivors out there, we offer food and shelter and we take requests!"

Claire rolled her eyes again and laughed quietly.

"OK we have a caller on line one, hi caller you're on the air at Radio Apocalypse."

"Yeah this is Jill, long time listener, first time caller."

"Hi Jill! What can we play for you today?" Kmart's sunny voice replied.

Claire continued laughing as Jill's voice came over both the radio and the walkie talkies. "Oh this should be good." She turned up the volume.

"Yeah I was wondering if you could play 'Something Happy' by anyone else? It's getting fucking depressing Kmart, between you and the scenery I'm losing the will to live here!"

Kmart huffed. "Right, well, we don't seem to have any OLD people music, but this one goes out to Jill Valentine... _"He was a boy, she was a girl, can I make it any more obvious..."_

Claire looked in the rear view to see Jill in the army truck behind her grabbing the sides of her head. She was pretty sure she could hear Jill screaming even from there. She picked up the hand held and pressed to talk. "Time to wrap it up K, we're coming up to a gas station in about 20 minutes. Get your ass over here."

Skater Boi finished and Kmart said her goodbyes to the listeners. The convoy slowed down to a stop and she ran up the side of the vehicles, waving at Jill as she passed before Jumping in the front of the Hummer.

"Hi." She greeted Claire as she clicked the belt on.

"You enjoy that?" Claire chuckled at her.

Kmart grinned and turned to the front to keep an eye out as they pulled up to their destination.

Carlos sauntered over to the hummer where Claire was leaning over a map planning the afternoon route out.

"Here we go K, on three..." Jill laughed and both she and Kmart tugged down their shirts at the front to mimic Carlos and his bullet proof vest just as the man himself did the same thing.

"Ha ha, very funny." Carlos said, but smiled at them anyway.

"Why do you wear that thing, I mean when was the last time a zombie shot at you?" Kmart mocked him.

"Those bandits we saw last month had guns."

Jill laughed. "You still didn't need it, they couldn't shoot for shit! Would have been more productive to throw the fucking guns at you and save the ammo."

Claire smirked at the memory of the badly arranged attack on the convoy. The end of the world it seemed brought out the very best and the very worst of humanity.

"All right children, lets get a plan ready." She said as she flattened the well worn map out.

"Is it time to start thinking about heading north yet?" Jill looked where Claire was pointing. "This fucking heat is killing me."

"Having to watch your skinny white ass parading around in next to nothing is killing me." Betty walked up to them sipping from the bottle of water handed out at each break point. "Don't you have any modesty woman? When do we head north?"

Claire kept the convoy in the desert during the winter months as driving in the north while more productive with resources was hellish in the cold.

"2 more weeks, then we'll start for Texas, make our way up the east coast."

"There ya go Betty, 2 more weeks of this fine form to look at. " Jill did a little shimmy in her shorts and cut off t-shirt.

Betty shuddered and tossed the bottle in Jill's direction smiling as the water dripped down the front. "Cool off Valentine."

Jill's mouth opened in a comic state of shock before she took off running after the ambulance driver.

"Whoa, where's the fire?" LJ spun around as Jill ran past. "Yo Carlos, you OK driving this afternoon, I got me a slot on the afternoon radio. He looked over at Claire. "Where next boss lady?"

Claire folded the map up and spoke to LJ. "Three more hours west, then we break for the night."

"All right! I will get you there in listening style." He walked back with Carlos leaving Claire and Kmart to get in the Hummer.

"Listen up people, we are heading west for about three hours, then we stop at remote spot outside a small town for the night. There is a water main on the map, so as soon as the area is cleared, we'll get the showers rigged up." Claire put the hand held down as a chorus of cheers rose up behind them.

"Ugh, worst thing about this desert, no easily available bathing water. I feel sorry for those guys in the bus, it's rank in there within two days." Kmart pulled out a book to read while she waited for LJ to come on the air.

"Better be nice to me then, or I'll make you ride with them." Claire smirked at her.

Kmart looked up in horror. "You wouldn't."

"Yeah bitches! Welcome to Radio Apocalypse, I'll be your host and disc spinner for the afternoon, so sit back and enjoy the ride and some smooth, soulful music. Oh yeah and we have supplies and shit if you can hear us."

Claire dropped her head to the side window again. "I don't know what's worse, your depressing teenage hormone music or LJ. Now I get to listen to three hours of what reminds me of bad seventies porn music."

Sure enough, the bass slap started the intro for LJ's first choice.

The worse thing about the desert, was not the unbearable heat during the day, but the sudden drop in temperature to almost freezing at night. But for now, it was early evening and a steady stream of people had taken their turn in twos and threes to clean up and wash their clothes in the hastily rigged camp showers, a golden find at a camping outlet they stopped off at a year or so past. The last of the convoy had finished bathing and now sat around several large fires eating from various cans handed out by the convoy food team led by Otto.

Claire and Jill had waited until everyone was settled for the evening before heading to the shower facilities.

Claire Redfield had started her convoy quite by accident. She had come flying out of Raccoon City on her bike when people started coming back to life, when the rest of the country followed in its wake, she traded the bike for the safety of the Yellow hummer that was the flagship and picked up a couple of people including the resident computer genius Mikey and the bar tender Otto. Forty survivors later, they came across Kmart living in her namesakes store. Kmart had attached herself to Claire like a limpet and the usually standoffish Claire had taken to the small blonde with equal vehemence much to everyone's surprise and amusement.

Carlos, LJ and Jill turned up looking very worse for wear after the convoy had been traveling for nearly a year. Carlos settled in easily, used to taking orders he quickly became someone Claire could rely on and hand responsibility to. LJ had a way with people that Claire envied, he fast became invaluable for morale. Jill? The first time they met was like throwing gas on a fire. Claire wasn't used to being questioned, again and again and again. Jill was used to taking orders. She was just as used to disregarding them. She kept mostly to herself only really relaxing around LJ and Carlos and Kmart. Carlos has explained that Kmart probably reminded Jill of a a girl called Angie that they had traveled with and that Jill had been close to.

Jill had teased the teen mercilessly as Kmart obviously had a bit of a girl crush on the ass kicking S.T.A.R.S members. And Jill could ass kick with the best of them. As often as Claire had wanted to get into a knock down drag out fight with the annoying brunette, she wasn't entirely sure she would win. As much as she had disliked her, every encounter they had with the undead left no doubt in Claire's mind that she was an asset. A snarky egotistical asset, but an asset none the less.

The turning point had come one day when they were camped out in a forest somewhere, Claire had told Kmart not to wander off but the teen going through her rebellious years had gone outside of the campfires and stumbled across a recently awoken snake. And as teenage girls are want to do, she screamed. She screamed loud enough to wake the dead, the undead and the undecided. Half the camp came running fearing the worst but Jill got there just ahead of Claire and seeing the snake curled up in what she thought was a threatening position, flung herself across Kmart, knocking them both to the ground and keeping the young girl covered for when it bit.

Mikey casually walked over and picked the snake up. He turned around with the large creature and a huge smile. "Relax, it's a rat snake, he wont hurt ya, will you mate. Damn he's a beaut!"

Jill had rolled off Kmart and was now flushing an impressive red. Everyone tried to look away to hide their smiles, mostly from relief that the snake was harmless but also having found the cool, calm and collect Ms Valentine with her ass in their air and her eyes screwed up tight waiting to be savaged.

"Yes thank you Steve fucking Irwin." She stood up and casually dusted herself off before meeting Claire's eyes. "Come on Redfield, get it out of your system." She sighed waiting for the redhead to burst out laughing. She hadn't expected to be grabbed in a full body hug by a terrified Claire.

"Thank you. I don't know what I would have done if she had been bitten."

Jill patted her on the back, somewhat confused. "No problem."

Claire moved away and looked at Kmart with more anger than Kmart had ever seen. "You and I are gonna have words."

Kmart gulped. Jill laughed. And Claire had been the best of friends with Jill ever since.

Jill became Claire's second. It was never explicitly stated, but it was known. And the zombies never stood a chance.

The radio duties had been taken up by a small group the convoy had picked up 6 months ago. An odd and overly religious group that kept mostly to themselves. As they moved toward the shower area, they passed by Mikey's news van where the odd little group was sat around listening to their own broadcast.

"That boy gives me the creeps." Jill whispered as they walked behind the plastic coverall hung between the branches. Claire laughed and started to remove her clothes, blissfully sighing as each piece was removed.

"I think he's harmless, I can't imagine growing up in such a religious community. I would probably have been exorcised by them."

"How come you only let them on the radio at night?"

Claire shrugged out of jeans. "Two reasons, one, I don't wanna have to listen to hymns while I drive, it's hard enough to stay awake as it is. Second, I don't want anyone that might pick up the signal to think I am gonna lead em to the promised land."

"Heh, no shit, you and me both Red. Ugh, I have sand in places I don't want to think about. K, you know the rules, no touching."

Claire shook her head. "You're such an ass. Not if you were the last woman on earth Valentine."

"I'm telling you Claire, all that hostility at first was you trying to get in my pants. If we were in kindergarten, you would totally have been pulling my pigtails."

Claire was busy washing her hair while Jill was shaving her legs with a razor that had seen sharper times. "You lie, you never had pigtails, I bet you were wearing army fatigues when you were 5. You're way more butch than I am. In fact if you don't get a date soon, people are gonna start wondering if you wanna get in my pants."

"In your dreams cupcake. Besides, have you seen what's on offer? I think I'll stick with Bob thank you."

Claire rinsed the soap out of her hair and looked over at Jill. "Bob? We don't have a Bob."

Jill grinned at her. "Battery Operated Boy. Fulfills all my needs and doesn't make me return the favor." She waggled her eyebrows comically.

Claire burst out laughing. "Damn you are disgusting."

They were still laughing when they came out of the shower and headed over to the fire with Carlos, his girlfriend Julia, LJ, Betty, Kmart, Mikey, Otto and Chase.

"What's for dinner?" Claire asked Otto taking the can from him.

"Spaghetti. Could be worse." He shrugged. "I'm looking forward to traveling back north. Get some fresh food. We're down to the last of the tins by the way."

Claire gulped the food down trying not to taste it. "We'll be heading back up in a couple of weeks, we have enough for 3 weeks?"

Otto tilted his head in thought. "I think so, I'll go double check, let you know."

Strangely the animals didn't seem to be affected by the virus. They had seen several infected animals along the way, always dogs. Carlos had a theory that only the animals that Umbrella had directly infected were mutated, the animals that were bitten were usually too small to have anything left to revive. The same seemed to be true for children. A blessing and a curse LJ had said. Small enough they were practically devoured, so at least they didn't have to deal with shooting tiny zombies. They all had enough PTSD without adding to it.

With infection free animals, food wasn't as scarce up north, but in the desert, nothing worth eating could live. The downside to going back north was that the undead population was much higher.

Claire nodded and opened her cigarette box, bringing one out, lighting it and inhaling loudly.

Kmart laughed at her. "You need to be alone with that?"

Claire raised her eyebrows and Kmart predictably blushed.

"Gimme a smoke Redfield." Jill called over.

"Fuck no, I only have 4 left. Where are yours?"

Jill shrugged. "Ran out. All that stressful music I have to listen to. C'mon, gimme."

"Nope. Deal with it."

The group around their fire subtly moved back, the fights between Jill and Claire were legendary, even when they became friends they could still clash, everyone wanted either a good view, or a quick getaway if it was going to kick off again.

"Pleeeeeeease? I'll be your best friend." Jill gave her a sickeningly sweet smile.

"That's it? That's all you got? C'mon, what's it worth to you?" Claire shot her an evil smile.

"I'll let you see me naked."

LJ spat his water through his nose. He started patting his pockets frantically. "I know I got one somewhere."

Claire rolled her eyes. "Forget it, I've seen you naked, I want my money back." She took an exaggerated drag on the cigarette to annoy the brunette.

"I'll let you borrow Bob."

"Who's Bob?" Kmart asked from her seat next to Claire and started patting her on the back as Claire was now choking and glaring but mostly choking at a laughing Jill Valentine.

When she finished choking and had gone back to her usual color, she threw a cigarette at Jill. "That is on the condition you never mention that again."

Jill grabbed the smoke and lit up in triumph. Kmart just shook her head. Adults were weird.

Otto had come back from his wandering with a package under his arm.

"Time we broke out that new stash we found back in that Mexican bar I think."

To a round of murmured agreements, Otto proceeded to roll a few joints to hand around.

As the adults around the fire became more relaxed from the weed, the talk as it usually did changed to happier days and 'no shit' stories.

Alice.

It was always Alice they spoke about.

Almost in whispers as though saying her name might finally summon her to the fire.

Claire always listened to their stories. Jill, LJ and Carlos had met Alice in Raccoon just before the blast took it out. Supposedly she had saved Carlos life when he got bitten, protected LJ from mutated dogs and rescued Jill from a church crawling with undead and some kind of mutated creature with a 6 foot tongue by driving her bike through a stained glass window no less. They all took turns in telling the story of how Alice had fought a titan of a creature before LJ stole an Umbrella helicopter to fly them out of the blast zone. How she was the coolest most badass thing since Lara Croft, how they had broken her out of an Umbrella compound after the helicopter crash, how over a year ago, she had driven off to find more of the anti-virus for a little girl called Angie. Alice they said was not infected with the T-virus, she _was_ the T-virus, she had bonded with it and became a superhero.

Claire had no doubt that it was all tall tales told around a fire to lift the spirits. Hearing about a woman that could blow shit up with the power of her mind while single-handed wiping out a hoard of undead using a pair of swords and some witty comebacks. Who came back from the dead in the same gorgeous body that she left it in. It was too much for Claire to believe, even as stoned as she was.

And the conversation nearly always ended the same way.

"And she would just luurve you Ms Redfield." LJ slurred as Carlos and Jill nodded sagely.

"Oh yeah, pretty sure you wouldn't need Bob if Alice was here." Jill started giggling. It was an odd noise coming from the usually stoic woman.

"Seriously, who's Bob?" Kmart mumbled sleepily next to Claire.

"No one you need to be concerned about. C'mon, bedtime for post apocalyptic teenagers." Claire stood and bid the others goodnight as she maneuvered Kmart to the Hummer.

It was always the same conversation, always ending the same way. Claire couldn't help but think it was quite a kick that a super human like Alice would be interested in Claire.

Even if she wasn't real.

Two weeks later found Claire snoozing at 6am pressed against the side of the window. Kmart looked from her position in the backseat smiling, knowing that when Claire woke up she would have the impression of the window grate against the side of her face. Made all the funnier because no one would tell her, the redheads temper was not something that anyone wanted to provoke.

Anyone other than Jill of course, Jill would spend the morning being really nice and saying things like "Great weather eh Claire." or Kmart's favourite, "Looking great Claire." Each mention of the word great would make Kmart giggle and Jill smirk. It was unusual for Kmart to be awake before Claire so she quietly opened the back door and stepped out to get some air. Scratches behind her made her whirl around where she came face to beak with a large black bird with white eyes. "Oh this can't be good." She jumped back in the truck slamming the door hard enough to wake Claire up.

"Jesus K, I know you can't wake me up with coffee, but really?"

"Claire, I think we have a problem." Kmart whispered as another large bird landed on the hood.

Claire noticed the whites of the bird's eyes and as her gaze turned upwards she saw the hundreds of birds around them, all with the same diseased look. She leaned down slowly to pick up the hand held radio. "Wake up people, we seem to have overstayed our welcome, keep it quiet and try not to panic."

Several calls came back to her alerting her that the convoy drivers were ready to go. "K move it out people, quick and quiet, lets get the fuck out of here." She started the truck and heard the large vehicles including the 2 buses and the tanker start behind her.

As they pulled out onto the main road, the flock of birds took to the sky and started flying aggressively at the moving convoy. Claire kept her calm and reached for the hand held. "Jill pull off and head to the back."

"Roger that Claire."

She watched in the rear view as Jill's army truck with Carlos inside pulled violently to one side and took a wide circle to the rear of the convoy. Turning her head to Kmart she kept her voice steady so as not to make it worse. "You all right there?" Kmart nodded briskly, trying not to make things any worse by panicking. "It's all good K, they cant get in, they'll give up soon." She smiled to put some conviction behind her words. Conviction that she herself didn't feel.

"Claire they are going after the second bus hard and heavy." Carlos voice broke through the radio.

"Shit. Danny, how you holding up there?" She asked the driver of the second bus, an older man that was, ironically, a bus driver before the outbreak of the T-virus.

"Claire they are throwing themselves at the window coverings, like they are testing for weak points. They're starting to buckle Claire, this isn't looking good." He answered back.

Claire could hear the screams of the people in the bus and looking behind her she could see the birds breaking off and swooping down. She looked around desperately for some cover. They had no plan to deal with this, there were no infected birds, they seemed to have the sense to not eat infected flesh. There were hundreds of the crows, too many to pick off with gunfire. As she was trying to come up with a plan, Kmart screamed.

"Claire the bus has come off the road, it's stuck in the sand. Oh God they can't get out."

Claire looked behind her and cursed loudly. She turned the Hummer around and headed back, hoping by the time she reached the bus she would have a plan. There were too many people in there to evacuate, none of the other vehicles had room, even temporarily to hold them.

"Claire the bus is stuck in the sand." Carlos came over the comms.

"I see it, we're heading back. Otto, Mikey, Betty, keep going about a hundred yards, pull up and wait, engines running, we're gonna get the bus out. Chase stay with me, I'm gonna get up on the fire cannon, bring these fuckers down."

"Claire you can't go out there!" Kmart was wide eyed with terror.

"Kmart you stay in the truck, no matter what happens, you stay here and wait for me or Jill, you understand me?"

"Claire, don't, you can't go out there!" Kmart was practically screaming.

"Kmart!" Claire snapped at the teen to get her to focus. "It's going to be OK, you hear me?" She wanted to pull the girl into her and take the time to calm her down, but she was driving around the stationary bus, trying to distract the birds before she had to climb on the tanker in the midst of a killing spree of crows to save her people.

"Send someone else Claire. Please?" Kmart's voice softened as she pleaded for what she knew would be Claire's life.

Claire looked over at Kmart one last time before she jumped out of the Hummer. "Rank hath it's privilege K." She smiled sadly. Before she could get her hand on the door handle, Kmart pointed out of the window.

Jill had brought the army truck up next to the tanker and Carlos was jumping out and heading to the ladder at the rear of the tanker.

"Son of a bitch!" Claire shouted as she jumped out to lay down some cover for him. Praying her hands didn't shake and hit the fucking tanker. Jill had driven the truck to the front of the bus and was hooking up the towing mechanism to get the bus out. Chase climbed out the other side and ran around to stand next to Claire, picking off the crows that came too close to Carlos.

Kmart had her face pressed to the window watching the drama unfold, she screamed, the sound breaking Claire's heart as one of the crows made it through the bullets and went straight for Carlo's exposed skin. He grabbed the creature, throwing it down and stamping on it, but not before the damage was done. Claire watched with sickening dread as the blood ran down the side of his face. He continued on, finally getting to the cannon and letting a blast of flame across the air into the remaining birds. Feathers caught fire easily and as the birds flew around, they inadvertently caught the rest of the flock alight until all that remained was charred flesh and ash. The few remaining creatures took off to avoid the carnage.

The bus was free from the sand, Jill quickly untied the tow lines and dived back into her truck as the freed bus drove off to wait with the others further down the road. Carlos staggered off the tanker and climbed into Jill's waiting vehicle. Chase got back inside and headed off down the road. Claire was the last one out, waiting until all of her people were safe.

She got into the Hummer and hit the gas. Grabbing the hand held she barked out her orders. "Otto, Danny, Mikey, Betty & Chase. Wait for me to drive passed then form up behind me, let's get out of here before they think of coming back. Jill pull up the rear."

Several voices called back in acknowledgment. "Don't spare the horses guys, let's get some distance between us and here." She dropped the radio and pumped the gas pedal that took her off down the road to her other vehicles. Kmart was sobbing next to her but there was no time to deal with it now.

She watched as the vehicles lined up behind her, going much faster than they usually did, using up too much gas was the least of their worries right now. She spent so long looking behind her that she didn't see what was in front of her until Kmart screamed.

"Claire look out!"

Claire looked back just in time to see a body crash into the Hummers windshield. The bike it was attached to clattered across the tarmac, screeching metal clashing with the squealing of Claire's brakes.

As the Hummer came to a stop, Jill pulled up next to her and jumped out, guns ready to go, Carlos as her side, his face a grim picture as the blood continued to roll unchecked down his face. They looked down on the road, Carlos gasped and Jill covered her mouth in shock.

"Alice?" It was LJ's voice that broke the silence.

Alice? Claire looked at the unmoving form on the road. This was Alice? The superhuman zombie death machine Alice? The Alice that had saved Jill and Carlos and LJ? The Alice that was the only one to ever bond with the T-virus and spent her life trying to save the world.

Claire couldn't believe it. Alice was real, she had finally showed up.

And Claire had just killed her.

She dropped her head forward onto the steering wheel with a groan setting the horn blaring.

"What a shitty fucking day."


	2. Chapter 2

Claire sat in the lobby of a cheap desert motel. Alternating moaning with her head in her hands and pacing like an expectant father. Alice, thank all the deities, had not been killed by the collision and was taking a concussion nap in one of the rooms. Carlos was not so lucky. The bite and scratch marks to his face were confirmed by a tearful Betty as being infected.

Claire had set up a system for dealing with infected convoy members. A perverse variation on the buddy system, someone would stay with the infected so he could go about his life, putting affairs in order, while he was still mobile. The buddy would keep an eye on him in case his condition deteriorated rapidly, but otherwise just stood back out of the way.

Jill was usually the buddy in question, this was one of Claire's methods that she had initially disagreed with when it first happened in front of her. However when Claire had offered her the opportunity to "just shoot him, here and now" she had recalled her partner, Payton, and realised she was still not able to just shoot another human. The random bandit gangs didn't count, it was a general agreement by all that they had chosen to leave humanity behind. So Jill would follow the infected around until the infection was at the later stages. The poor soul would then be handcuffed to what ever was available until he turned. Then and only then, could Jill or Claire put them out of their misery. The alternative of killing someone that had fought, lived, laughed and traveled with them was too great a thing to contemplate.

When ever it had happened, Carlos had mentioned Alice. If she could bond with this virus, then someone else could as well. To date, it hadn't happened, but in so much as anyone could sleep well at night, it kept their conscience clean.

Cleaner.

Slightly less soiled.

So here sat Claire, waiting for the infamous Alice to come out of her Hummer induced sleep while Jill walked around with a still cheerful Carlos, Jill's teeth clenching so hard to stop the tears, Claire was sure that some of them would be broken by the evening.

24 hours. No one had made it past the 24 hour mark.

Slamming her chair down in frustration, Claire walked out of the dusty motel to the dusty car park that they had settled in. People were taking turns on the roof, acting as lookouts to the return of the birds that the fire canon missed. The heat during the day was so intense the watch was being changed every 30 minutes. Any longer than that and there was a very real possibility of heatstroke.

"Any news Claire?" A voice called form above.

"Noting yet Sergei." She called back. The camp side legend of Alice the wonder woman meant that nearly all her survivors were aware of who the blonde was and what she was to the point that they had all asked after her at some point. Claire reasoned it was like a favourite storybook character, she wondered what Alice would think when she woke up to a hundred people greeting her like a long lost relative. She smiled at the thought until her eyes caught onto the sombre figure of Jill walking along next to a still bloodied Carlos.

"Hey Red." Carlos called over cheerfully.

Claire shook her head at him. "Taking your life in your hands there Olivera." Carlos has never used that name with her. Jill had used it from the get go, intending to get under her skin, now however it was no more than a term of endearment, no one else in the convoy had tried their luck with it though.

Carlos shrugged. "Nothing to lose."

He looked terrible, Claire noted. It wouldn't be long now before Jill would have to subdue him. As if reading her thoughts he stood up straighter. "We are gonna head out a way. Get some privacy. There's a shack about 2 miles out, we passed it heading in. It had some shade, far enough that no sound will reach."

How could he be so fucking cheerful, so casual. Claire wanted to shout and scream and rail to the skies on his behalf, but she wouldn't dishonour their friendship like that. If he could go to his death with a smile, she was damn sure she wasn't going to turn into amateur dramatic theater.

"I'm so sorry Carlos." She went to his open arms and hugged him, knowing this would be their last goodbye.

"So am I Claire. But you know what they say, we had a good run eh?"

She half laughed, half sobbed and pulled away from him. "Thank you for everything. I'll see you one day soon."

"Just don't make it too soon. You two have to lead these people, try not to kill each other." He laughed as she punched him in the shoulder. "C'mon, lets get out of here." He spoke to the still silent Jill.

"Did you speak to Kmart?" Claire asked as they walked away.

"I did." He nodded. "She's pretty upset, she still sitting with Alice, waiting for her to wake up. I don't think she wants to face anyone just yet. I wish I could have seen Alice one more time. She takes a bit of getting used to Claire, but if you can keep her around, you won't regret it."

Claire didn't think Alice would be staying around considering the welcome she got. Maybe she would stay for Jill. Claire also didn't think that the stories about her held as much truth as Carlos seemed to believe. She had stopped in to check on Kmart after Carlos and Jill had settled Alice in the motel. She looked at the unconscious woman and was struck by how fragile she seemed. So small and human. Not the larger than life superhuman that they had claimed her to be. She was as dusty as they all were from traveling in the sand. Her clothes were battered from riding a bike through the unforgiving terrain. Her hair was a blonde and brown mix that seemed to fall at different lengths all over, as though Alice herself had just hacked off bits of it as they got in the way. She was pale despite her time in the sun and all together too slight to be the great savior of mankind.

But she was also their friend and Claire would hold the guilt for a long time that she was responsible for not giving Carlos the chance to say goodbye.

She turned back to the motel as Jill's truck moved out of site down the road until all that remained were the wavy heat lines coming up from the asphalt. Time to check on Kmart again.

Kmart's eyes were swollen but she had at last stopped crying. She knew without a doubt that as soon as she went back outside and fell into the normal routine, it would start again. Just as she knew without a doubt that had Carlos not done what he did, Claire would have been up on the tanker and would now be the one being taken away by Jill to wait for the inevitable. As much as she loved Carlos, as much as she would miss his presence, she didn't think she would survive if it had been Claire. The tears threatened to come again at the thought, so she pushed them down and took a large gulp of air to steady herself.

The sigh seemed to rouse Alice as she started to come around with a groan.

"Did anyone get the license plate?" She asked dramatically causing Kmart to giggle.

Alice opened one eye toward the sound and lifted her arm to block the suns rays. She noticed the bracelet of carefully wound and colourful electrical wires on her wrist. "I'm pretty sure I didn't have these when I went to sleep." She smiled at the teen.

"I gave them to you, kinda like an apology."

Alice looked confused. "You ran me down?"

Kmart giggled again. "No, they don't let me drive, but I was in the Hummer, making a lot of noise, it was probably distracting. I'm so sorry, we were trying to get away from these birds and we got rid of most of them, but there were some left and we were speeding away, we don't usually go that fast, but it was really scary, and Claire, well she was trying to watch behind us to make sure that everyone was safe, Claire is the convoy leader, anyway Claire was all driving away at super speed and I'm all OMG and Claire is all trying to make it better and we couldn't see Jill and Carlos was bitten cos he went on the tanker instead of Claire, which is awful cos he was attacked by one of them, but Claire should have been there and she wasn't so we were racing down the road to get away and how come you didn't see us anyway?"

Alice just looked at Kmart like she was from Mars. "Wow. Um, well, wow. Wait, Jill and Carlos? They're here?"

Kmart nodded. "I thought you knew that, wasn't that why you were there?"

Alice sat up to get her bearings. "No, I was looking for them, but I was only there because of the crows. I thought they had found undead, and if there are undead, there are usually survivors. How many of you are there?"

"Nearly a hundred. Pretty cool huh? Claire started the convoy a couple of years back and it just kept growing. I'm Kmart by the way." She stuck her hand out ignoring Alice's open mouthed look at her name.

"Um, OK, nice to meet you Kmart, my name is Alice."

"I know, we all know. Jill and Carlos and LJ, they tell stories about you at night. We wondered if you were real you know? But here you are and Claire feels terrible that she nearly killed you. Claire's really nice, she doesn't usually run people over, in fact I think you are the first, I mean she runs over the zombies and all, but not people, you'll like her, everyone does, she's really awesome. Wow I just noticed your eyes, you have really pretty eyes."

Alice started laughing, "You can really talk can't you? What are you, 15?"

Kmart nodded excitedly. "Uh huh, that's really amazing, most people think I'm older, I look older when I have make up on. Guess that's kind of silly really, wearing make up at the end of the world, but it's a kind of fun way to pass the time. You should totally let me do your make up one day."

Alice looked suddenly terrified, electrical bracelets were one thing, but she wasn't sure she wanted her make up done. She was about to politely decline when the door opened and a gorgeous redhead walked in and locked eyes with her.

"You're awake."

A gorgeous redhead with minimal people skills, this should be fun Alice internally sighed.

"Sorry, sorry, it's been a rough couple of days. I'm Claire, Claire Redfield and I'm truly sorry for knocking you off your bike. Having spent a good while with Kmart I know she has probably talked your ear off by now so I will assume you know where you are and what's going on."

Alice reached out her hand and smiled. "Alice, but I gather from Kmart you all know that."

Claire took the outstretched hand and faltered as she met Alice's eyes for the first time. "Carlos.." She choked slightly. "Kmart, go see if Betty needs any help with anything." She smiled at the teen brushing her hair back as Kmart's eyes teared up again. When she was out of the door, Claire turned back to Alice. "I'm so sorry about Carlos, he was really sad that he didn't get to speak to you."

"Me too, when did he die?" she bowed her head.

Claire looked confused. "Um, he didn't, I mean he will, he was bitten by one of the infected birds."

Now Alice looked confused. "So where is he?"

"Jill took him out a few miles."

Alice jumped up from the bed. "Shit, how long ago?"

"Um, about 20 minutes, I'm so sorry."

"Fuck. So he's probably dead now."

"Well, we think he probably has about 3 or 4 hours."

Alice ran her hand through her hair. "So why is.. I mean, what.. OK help me out here. Jill took him out about 20 minutes ago, but she is going to let him wait 3 or 4 hours before she shoots him?"

Claire's eye brows were so scrunched up they had met in the middle. "No, she took him out about 20 minutes ago, but she is going to wait for him to turn before she shoots him."

"You don't shoot the bitten straight away?"

"We can't, neither Jill or I can do it. We tie them up, wait for them to die, do it then. I have enough death on my hands, we can't do it. We have a system, it keeps us sane." She chuckled humourlessly.

Alice strode quickly to the door. "You know where they are?"

Claire nodded.

"Show me." And Alice ran outside followed by a seriously confused Claire.

Alice had grabbed her bike, glad to see that it hadn't taken much damage and was still ride able. She checked the bag on the back and pulled out a small case containing a small odd looking gun. She unhooked the straps carrying all her belongings from the back seat, dropping them into the sand just as Claire caught up. She straddled the bike and kicked it into gear. She held out her hand for Claire to climb behind her, when the redhead was settled with her arms around her waist, she took off down the road at great speeds.

Kmart ran out of the ambulance when she heard the bike roar to life. She watched as Alice sped out of the camp with Claire behind her, she heard Claire yell out that she would be back in a few and then they were gone.

Claire had ridden bikes her whole life, both as a rider and a passenger, but she had never felt the need to hold on for dear life as she had right now. She wanted to ask why they were going to Carlos but she didn't think she would be heard over the noise.

Just over 10 minutes later the shack came into view shortly followed by Jill's army truck. Claire pointed it out, probably unnecessarily, and they slowed down to a crawl as Jill came around the corner gun raised.

For the first time in hours a smile broke over Jill's features. "Bout time you woke up."

Alice waited for Claire to get off the bike before she put the kickstand down and walked over taking Jill into a hug. She put the brunette down and walked over to a pale and sweating Carlos.

"Alice, good to see you one last time." He croaked out.

Alice rolled her eyes, "Always the drama queen Carlos." She rolled up his sleeve and without ceremony pulled out the odd looking gun, turned it onto his arm and pulled the trigger.

Carlos laid his head back to the wooden planks of the building he was propped up on. "Don't think I'm not grateful, but I think it's too late this time."

"Well lucky for you, those lovely folks at Umbrella have been working on a better anti-virus. I took the liberty of liberating some on my last visit."

Claire walked over to where Alice was squatted down. "You have anti-virus? You can save him?"

Alice nodded and gave her a quirky grin. "You did want him saved right? I mean he can be kind of annoying, I should have checked first. Sorry bout that."

Jill burst out laughing before grabbing Alice and hugging her until her feet left the ground. "Damn I missed you. I didn't think we would see you again." She did her best to cover a sob and wipe her eyes of the tears she had been fighting all day.

"To be honest, I didn't think I would find you either, not like you can send a text message anymore."

Jill nodded still wiping her face. "Where's Angie, Alice?"

Alice looked away. "I lost her. I got into an Umbrella facility and got enough Anti-virus to keep her going. We were traveling to find you again, but the drugs just stopped working as well as they used to. Maybe her body got used to it, I don't know. I got through what should have been 6 months worth in a few weeks. In the end, she just wanted to go. I'm so sorry Jill, she died about 5 months back, I've been looking for you ever since."

Jill looked at Carlos. "I'm glad you're back. When he wakes up, I'm pretty sure he will be too, he was more upset that he didn't get to say goodbye than anything else."

Alice nodded and Jill kept speaking. "I'm sorry about Angie, thank you for trying. I made my peace with it a long time ago." She sat down next to Carlos and was about to introduce Claire and Alice properly when Alice whipped her head round, her body going rigid.

Jill jumped back up and drew her guns, unconsciously so did Claire, as she reacted to the perceived threat."

"We have company, quite a few of them it seems."

Claire checked her Glock, she had come out with Alice and hadn't stopped to get her usual ammo and weapon stash. She checked Jill and she too only had the one gun, Alice it seemed had none, just the two crooked swords on her back.

Over the dunes to the side of the road, the familiar groan became clearer, followed by the stench of death.

"Shit, Jill get Carlos in the truck, get back to the camp and warn them we have incoming. Alice can you help me try and pull them away, give the camp a chance to get ready?" The redhead starting mentally planning how to deal with the 40 odd stumbling creatures heading toward them. She was about to bark at Jill to get moving when she realised the woman had put her gun back in its holster and was smirking at her. She looked at Alice who had the most bizarre expression on her face, her head tilted to one side as if trying to understand why Claire was so bothered.

"It's OK, I'll take care of it." She said softly to Claire as if not to startle her.

Claire looked at Alice and suddenly realised who she was talking to. Still there were 40 of them and Carlos was injured. She handed her gun to Alice hilt first. "Take my gun, Jill can provide cover when they get closer to us."

Alice took the gun and with a serious expression she spoke to Claire. "Thank you, this will come in handy." With that she turned around and whipped the gun at the closest undead that was approaching, nailing him in the forehead with enough strength to knock him off his feet. He didn't get up.

"Right, one down." And Alice took off at a leisurely run toward the rest of them.

Jill burst out laughing as Claire just stood there in confusion. She walked over and threw her arm around the redheads shoulders.

Thirty feet away, Alice hand reached the shuffling creatures and drawn her weapons, the two swords from her back, and was quickly and efficiently disposing of their uninvited guests. Claire was aware that her mouth had yet to close.

She whirled and spun in place, the blades were as much a part of her as the badly cut hair and ragged clothing. With an economy of motion that Claire truly envied she cut and stabbed her way through the hoard and made no effort to hide her delight in doing so. Those eyes that Claire had thought stunning when she first saw them, were now alight with joy at the ferocity she was displaying.

"You're drooling Redfield." Jill whispered in her ear.

"You have no idea." Claire whispered back.

Alice finished the last of them with a particularly effective swing that had her land on one knee, blades in the air, head down, like a pose from an action movie as the last zombie fell to her blades.

A noise started behind her as Claire noted with alarm that the remaining crows were heading toward them. As she was about to run forward and warn Alice that they had arrived, Jill tightened her hold and kept her in place.

Alice looked up slowly and sneered, as the crows came within reach, her eyes became black, the pupils dilating to cover the blue as a wave of energy pulsated out from her and ripped the crows from the skies, imploding them as they dropped lifeless to the floor one after the other.

She walked away from the carnage as casually as if taking a stroll with a smirk on her face. As she reached Claire she casually handed over the keys to the bike.

"I'll take Carlos back in the truck, can you bring Jill back on the bike?"

Claire just nodded, silently.

Alice winked at her. "Thanks." And she moved to Carlos, lifting him without effort into the truck before heading out.

"You need me to drive?" Jill asked, still smiling at Claire.

"Huh? No, no, it's all good. Climb on."

And they rode back behind the truck.

20 minutes later they arrived in the camp to scenes of jubilation, a shaky Carlos was back on his feet with most of his colour restored. LJ was alternating slapping his shoulder and punching Alice good naturedly in the arm. Kmart was hugging Carlos and crying as most of the convoy lined up to do the same and introduce themselves to Alice.

The Alice.

The only woman to bond with the T-virus.

The Alice with the superhuman skills that had taken on Umbrella and saved Jill and Carlos and LJ and Carlos again.

That Alice.

Kmart walked over to the bike, hugging Jill as she walked past her. Jill stood next to LJ smiling as a confused Alice met with the convoy that all seemed to know her.

"So that's Alice eh?" Kmart offered to Claire who hadn't taken her eyes off the blonde yet.

"Uh huh."

"Carlos said she made the birds explode and that she killed a zombie by throwing a gun at it, and that she took on a hundred zombies all at once and killed them all. Did you see it? Was it awesome?" Kmart asked excitedly.

Claire realised that Kmart had stopped talking. She looked at her with a slightly blank expression. "Uh, what?"

Kmart walked back to the group shaking her head and saying someone about adults being weird.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N** I swear does not make it easy to post. I think you have to be a member of Mensa to figure out how to post, frankly I'm surprised the first two chapters came out properly.

Thankfully my Mensa membership is up to date, and voila, chapter 3. In case it wasn't obvious, I do not own these characters, I'm not entirely sure who does, but it isn't me.

Secondly, a shout out to Alexis and Jovovich for the nudge to write a RE story.

Thirdly, dedicated to Randas, for all she puts up with.

Oh and I tend to write in a hurry, so while I do go back and re-read parts for continuity etc, I don't always catch the mistakes. Sorry bout that.

**Chapter 3**

Alice stood off to the side of the camp, leaning against Jill's truck. Carlos was still sleeping off his recent infection and the rest of the convoy finally left her alone and carried on with life, such that it was. Food was being handed out as the convoy settled down for the night. "Tell me what you've been up to these past months."

Jill shrugged her shoulders and finished her water. "Not much really, when you left with Angie, we moved around a bit, trying to avoid any of the Umbrella facilities, God knows how many are still active, we met a few people on the way, some good, some not so much."

Alice looked at her in question. "You found trouble?"

Jill laughed. "Of course. Remind me to tell you one night about this crazy ass family we met broadcasting from an old radio station. Like something out of deliverance. I swear if one of them had said I had a 'purdy' mouth, I would have shot them sooner."

Jill bumped shoulders with Alice. "How 'bout you? Find anything interesting?"

"Some. I got some chips from Umbrella, no way to read them yet. I blew up a couple of their main buildings, Mexico, LA, got a stash of anti-virus. I want to know what's on those data chips, the anti-virus is stronger, which makes me think that they have made the virus stronger as well. LA is swarming with undead, first time I went to a major city since the outbreak."

"Jesus Alice, how did you get out?" Jill asked in alarm.

Alice shrugged again. "They don't bother me. If I attack them it sets them off, but I think they know I am not quite human anymore." She looked across the camp site and saw Claire Redfield walking with purpose from one vehicle to another. Her hair was tied back and she had streaks of oil down her bare arms and across her face. "Tell me about this." Alice gestured around to the survivors. "How come there are so many?"

"We met up with Claire about 5 months after leaving you. She already had about 60 people following her. We didn't get on at first, clashed a bit you know?"

Alice laughed. "You don't say? Imagine that."

Jill laughed with her. "Yeah well, we ironed things out, worked out really well. She's an amazing leader, these people respect her, first one in, last one out kind of thing. Pretty fearless and incredible in a fight."

Alice looked over to the woman in question. Claire turned her head when she felt someone looking at her. As her eyes met with Alice, she lost her focus and walked face first into the open Hummer door.

"I can only imagine." Alice winced in sympathy. Jill however burst out laughing.

"I don't think she is quite used to you being here. Didn't help her running you down. We used to tell stories around the fire at night, well, LJ mostly, you know how he is. He used to tease her that you would be on her like white on rice."

Alice smirked. "Did he now." She looked back at Claire having an animated conversation with Kmart. "So you travel around the desert now? What are you doing for supplies. Pretty much everything I saw was picked clean. Wasn't much to start with."

"We stay down in the desert during winter, less supplies but less undead, living and driving in the north is pretty crappy for 3 months a year, so Claire brings them down here and rations supplies. The rest of the year, I swear you wouldn't think there had been an outbreak. First week we traveled with them, I think it was the third night, Claire had a camp set up and they were playing a movie." Jill looked over to Alice. "You believe that? Had fucking popcorn and everything. I was about coming out of my skin with panic. Carlos had to explain they had a perimeter set up that warned them of anything heading in, it was monitored the whole time by a group of geeks. They had an electronic perimeter set up, guards took it in turns to walk out and check, had a couple of guys up in the trees all of them swapping shifts. It was pretty impressive. They have this projection screen set up from the geek mobile and piped the sound through the trucks speakers. Still hard to get used to though. Claire keeps them safe and fed, we noticed the animals don't seem to be infected, so they have hunting parties set up. We raid occasionally, I thought everything would be empty, but so few people survived almost everything was left intact."

"You went into the towns?" Alice inquired.

"Mostly we stayed at the outskirts, we went into the towns to raid. It's pretty scary, the undead don't seem to have a shelf life. They just keep going until there is nothing left of them for the T-virus to animate. So we raided the towns, kept up food and supplies then camped far enough away that we could clear an area and stay for a few days. Mostly we head out after 3 or 4 days in one place, that's usually how long it takes for them to catch up to us. Only a few of us go on the raids, the rest stay behind with the perimeter and the guards. Usually only me, Carlos, Sergei, Chase, Betty and Claire. Chase is the cowboy." Jill pointed him out sitting on a desk chair on top of the tanker. His rifle resting in his arms. "Sergei was armed forces, damn good sniper. Betty is the medic, used to be a nurse, she has help from Julie, that's Carlos's girlfriend, she was training to be a vet when it happened."

Alice laughed. "Carlos has a girlfriend?"

Jill nodded. "Yeah, she's really sweet, adores him. You'll meet her later, she hasn't left his side since we brought him back. Anyway, Betty would come mostly in case anyone got hurt, we take the army truck, fill it with whatever we find and bring it back."

Alice nodded. "You're right, that's pretty damn impressive."

"Having you here is gonna make things a whole hell of a lot easier." Jill looked at Alice quickly. "You are staying aren't you?" She asked. "Please tell me you are staying."

Alice smiled. "I'm staying. I missed you guys. I'll help anyway I can. I mean assuming Claire will have me."

Jill laughed. "Yeah I don't think you have to worry about that. Besides Claire is a natural leader, she wants what's best for her convoy." She threw her arms around Alice who hugged her back with as much enthusiasm.

When they broke apart they looked across the central fire and watched as the natural leader in question stumbled over her own feet and righted her self just before she face planted into the sand. She changed direction and mumbled to herself as she made for the food area.

Alice looked at Jill in confusion as she continued to laugh out loud.

Claire had finished playing with the last engine she had to check. She made a point of weekly checks to make sure they wouldn't be caught out when they traveled. She used to work on bikes before the outbreak, but like everyone else, she had to improvise. They had a vet tech for medical help, a bartender as a chef, a TV studio worker heading up their electronic security and a librarian teaching the kids to read. Adapt or die, wasn't that the saying?

She walked across the camp toward the Hummer and some clean clothes. Kmart had wrangled her a bucket of reasonably warm water to clean up with and then she would join the others for a random can of something half way edible.

As she neared the Hummer, she felt the weight of someone's eyes on her, watching. She looked over and came eye to eye with Alice. Something almost tangible sparked between them and Claire briefly forgot where she was and what she was doing. Walking smack bang into the side of the Hummer gave her a painful reminder.

Bringing her hands up to her face to check for bleeding she started yelling. "Dammit Kmart, what have I said about leaving doors open?"

Kmart looked up from where she was reading in the front seat of the car and looked at Claire. "You never mentioned anything about doors." Kmart snapped indignantly. "I have a list a mile long on the Claire Redfield guide to survival, it doesn't mention doors."

Claire glowered at her. "Yeah, well, I shouldn't have to tell you these things."

Kmart when back to her book shaking her head. "Whatever Claire."

Claire cleaned up on the other side of the truck to get a modicum of privacy. She came back around and leaned against the door. "You eat yet?"

Kmart nodded. "Ravioli."

Claire wrinkled her nose up. "I'm going to speak to Jill and Carlos when he wakes up. I think we need to head north sooner rather than later, food isn't looking to good at the moment."

Kmart put her book down. "We can head north now, Alice can deal with the zombies." She said excitedly.

"I don't know K, I mean she might not stay."

Kmart looked horrified. "What? But she has to stay? She saved Carlos and Jill and LJ and Carlos are her friends. Of course she'll stay. She didn't say anything about leaving when I spoke to her. Just make sure you ask her." Kmart said as though that settled the matter.

"When did you talk to her?" Claire tilted her head at the young girl.

"I introduced her to everyone when you got back. She's really nice, I think you'll like her. Everyone was really nice to her. And look what she gave me!" Kmart leaned behind her and produced a can of coke, it had been months since anyone had drunk anything except coffee or water.

Claire smirked. It seems Kmart's girl crush had moved away from Jill onto Alice. "How come you haven't drunk it yet?"

Kmart shrugged. "I was going to leave it out tonight to get cold, drink it in the morning."

Claire started off toward where Otto was dealing with the food. "You gonna share it?" She bounced her eyebrows up and down making Kmart laugh.

"Maybe. If you can convince Alice to stay, we can discuss it further."

Claire shook her head and laughed. "I'll go speak to her now."

Kmart's smile was huge as she waved goodbye to Claire.

Claire headed over toward where Alice and Jill were standing, she looked up and saw Jill wrap her arms around Alice and hug her. The sight made Claire distinctly uncomfortable and she toyed with talking to her later as she lost her footing and almost headed into the sand face first. Stumbling quickly and hoping that no one noticed she made her way to dinner cursing the whole way.

Jill approached Claire as Otto handed her a can of food for dinner. When they got to the last of the food, there wasn't enough of the same to put in something to heat it properly, so he did what he could by putting the cans in hot water to at least partially heat them Claire often thought this made it worse, but she started to gulp it down anyway.

"Alice is staying. You're OK with that right?" Jill asked.

Claire nodded. "I have to ask though, she is technically infected yes?"

Jill confirmed it. "She is, but she isn't contagious. When that helicopter crashed, she.." Jill swallowed audibly. "She bled out in my arms." Jill stopped talking while she got her throat under control. "It was awful, she threw herself in front of this huge piece of shrapnel that was heading for Angie. She bled, a lot. I had it all over me, so did Carlos. She can't infect anyone. She really did bond with it."

Claire grasped Jill's arm when she finished speaking. "I'm sorry. I'm glad she's staying."

Jill smiled at her. "So what's up?"

Claire moved her arm back and finished eating. In between mouthfuls she laid out her plan. "Have the others meet by the fire when everyone's turning in for the night. We need to head out sooner, picking up that last few survivors has left us too low on supplies to stay. Bring Alice tonight, I want her input on what we do." Jill nodded and the two women walked off to the central fire to sit with a few of the survivors and talk.

As the last of the convoy made their way to the various tents and vehicles to sleep, Claire waited for the others to join her. She saw Carlos head over supported by Julie, he looked a damn sight better than before, but Claire could see it had drained him of most of his energy. As they walked up to Alice, Carlos hugged her and introduced his girlfriend. Before he could make introductions, Julie flung herself at a surprised Alice and burst into tears. Claire wanted to laugh at the look of terror Alice had as she nervously patted the girl on the shoulders and assured her it was no trouble at all.

Carlos saw Julie off to their sleeping area before heading back to join Chase, Mikey, Jill, Alice, Claire, Betty and Sergei at the fireside.

"How's LJ?" Jill asked Betty.

"Oh you know, sleeping like a baby and oblivious to the end of the world." She said and Jill laughed. She introduced Alice to Betty and explained that she and LJ had been together from almost the minute they joined the convoy.

Claire pulled out the maps and the notebook with the supply list on it and started the conversation.

"Alice is going to be staying with us, this gives us a huge advantage in knowing where the undead are ahead of time. This and the lack of food is pushing us to head north earlier than we planned. But we need to stock up before we start, I don't want to rely on gathering bits and pieces along the way." She spread the map out and started pointing out options.

"How about this one?" Mikey offered. "We didn't come in this way so chances are good there is something there, maybe food, or more people."

Alice shook her head and drew a line down the map. "I came down this way, there are people, but you don't wanna meet them." She said curling her lip in distaste.

Carlos joined in and drew a line down the other side. "Well we covered down here, there's nothing."

"Vegas" Claire said.

The conversation stopped around the fire.

"We have to hit Vegas. It's the only place we are guaranteed to get what we need."

Jill shook her head. "There's a reason for that Claire. Alice was in one of the cities recently, it was crawling with those fuckers. Stands to reason that Vegas is gonna be the same."

Claire looked to Alice. "Is that right?"

Alice nodded. "Yes, but I can get in. The undead don't touch me."

Carlos laughed. "So they do have some sense then."

The quiet laughter followed around the fire before dying down.

"I can take the supplies truck and fill it, be out in a day. It's what, a hundred and ten miles form here?"

Claire shook her head. "You can't go alone. We'll send a team in with you, it's safer."

Alice shook her head. "They really don't touch me, if you come, they'll know you are human, it will attract them."

"So we have to be quick. You can't go alone, if anything happened to you, Jill would never forgive me and we would still have to go in and get the truck back. No, we go in as a team."

"What can possibly happen to me?" Alice asked reasonably.

Chase spoke up from across the flames. "Some crazy ass redhead could run you over, knock you out, shit happens ya know?" He tilted his hat back and watched Claire's face light up in embarrassment.

"You are now at the bottom of the cigarette list, I hope you know that." She mocked him.

"OK, tomorrow, Alice, Jill, Chase, Betty, me and Carlos will take the supply truck and the Hummer. Sergei I need you to stay here and sort the watch out. K, all clear?"

Everyone nodded their assent and they went their separate ways for the night.

"I don't see why I cant come." Kmart sulked. "I'll share my coke with you?"

Claire smiled at the teen and ruffled her hair. "This goes well, I'll bring you a crate of em back. Stay here, look after the youngsters, stay safe, OK? I take you with me and all I'm gonna do is worry. I'll take care, Jill's got my back."

Kmart sighed. "Bring me back something nice?"

Claire smiled and walked off. "You know I will." She caught up to the others. Carlos was saying his goodbyes to Julie looking for all the world as if he had never been bitten. Jill was loading up her various weapons, Chase was making sure his scope was clean, Betty was doing her best not to look terrified and Alice? Alice looked bored as if she was going out for stroll before breakfast. Claire had to remember to breath properly when Alice was around. She snuck a look at the other woman and reigned in the temptation to talk. She was fairly certain her words would come out jumbled and she had already made enough of a fool of herself in front of Alice.

"Carlos, Chase, Betty. In the truck. Jill can take back of the hummer, Alice, you can ride me."

Her eyes shot open in horror. "With me. You can ride with me. In the truck. With Jill. Where we will travel. In the Hummer. Riding." She waited for the ground to open up and swallow her, when nothing happened, she decided to just pretend it had never happened. "OK can we just get moving, I want to be done with this."

Carlos, Chase and Betty looked at her like she had lost her mind before climbing into the truck. Jill however let out an undignified snort as she passed by to the Hummer.

Claire stomped off to the drivers side muttering under her breath. "Should have kept my damn mouth shut. Ugh, what is it with her?"

Alice however moved over to her bike. "I'm gonna take this, I can sense undead, be easier for me to scoot around and make sure we are safe going in."

Claire nodded, not trusting herself to speak. Jill however leaned out the back door and yelled over to Claire. "You can ride _with_ Alice if you want. I can take the Hummer."

Alice climbed on the bike and waited for Claire to look over. She nodded to the back seat and smiled. "You wanna be my bitch?" She asked innocently.

Claire's eyes opened comically wide. "Uh... Hummer... Can't... Jill...Zombies." And practically ran to the front door.

Alice smirked and roared off up the road towards Vegas.

They pulled into the dusty city that had once been such a mass of lights and activity, now it was desolate.

They found a mini market easily as they traveled along the strip. Pulling up to the back doors, Carlos reversed the truck to make it easier to load.

Alice steadied her bike and walked over. "I guess the undead are still walking around inside the hotels and stuff. Nothing seems to be happening outside."

Claire looked around and nodded. "It wont take them long to know we are here. OK listen up. Alice is gonna take a look inside, make sure we are clear. Betty, stay with the truck, get ready to fire it up at the first sign of trouble. I know Alice can deal with pretty much anything, but this is Vegas, there must be thousands of them around here. Carlos, Jill and I will head in when Alice gives the all clear and start loading up anything of use we can find. Chase, we need a lookout, one in the air." She nodded to the faux Eiffel Tower just over from the market.

Chase looked at her in amazement. "Seriously? You want me to climb up there?"

Claire winked at him. "Gotta make sure there are no crazy ass redheads driving around."

"Shit." He mumbled before starting the climb.

Claire smirked as she walked back to the trucks. Paybacks were a bitch. Now she just had to work on giving Alice hers.

"K lets move people, I have to eat one more can of lukewarm pasta and I'm gonna go nuts. Chase, you see anything moving, start shooting."

There were a couple of thuds from within the store before Alice came back out and announced it was clear. Carlos, Jill and Claire joined her inside to see what they could find.


	4. Chapter 4

Back at the camp, everyone was in good spirits at the return of Claire and the rest of them. They had gathered all of the supplies in the market, most of them completely unhealthy much to everyone's joy. Kmart in particular was over the moon as Claire handed over a hand full of chocolate bars and a bottle of soda before they went on a first come first get for the others.

"As promised." She smiled as Kmart squealed at deafening levels.

"You're the best, I promise never to make fun of you again. For at least a day!"

Claire laughed. "A whole day huh?"

Kmart hugged her. "Seriously, thanks Claire."

Claire couldn't help thinking that it was such a shame that these days handing over a couple of Mars Bars could make someone so happy. She released Kmart's hug as Carlos and Julie walked over smiling at them.

"Need a word Claire." He looked at Kmart pointedly then back to Claire.

"Yeah yeah, I get it, 'adult stuff', I'm gonna go help Otto out." She made the finger quotes as she said it causing Claire to roll her eyes. "Love you!" She yelled over her shoulder and ran off to hide her prizes before joining Otto.

"What's up Carlos? Hi Jules."

Carlos nodded at Julie and let her talk. "Hey Claire, listen it might be nothing but I overheard Isaac talking. Well, not really overheard, he wasn't exactly hiding it. Anyway, he seems to have a bee in his bonnet about Alice."

Claire frowned. "Isaac? The older guy in that religious family?"

Julie nodded. "That's him. He was pretty clear how he feels, talking about God and how Alice wasn't human and it was wrong that we let her stay. He said a lot of other shit as well, but it was pretty mean. No one said anything to agree with him, well, no one outside his family, they all seemed to agree, but then they always do. Otto told him to keep his opinions to himself, everyone pretty much grumbled in agreement. You know how he is, no one wants to get into it with him. Anyway, thought you should know, cos I'm pretty sure he is gonna be in your face about it."

"Great, just what we need. Oh well, something was bound to set him off eventually, I swear that man has been dying to get into it over something."

Jill had walked over at the tail end of the conversation. "You want me to handle it Red?"

Claire sighed. "Tempting Jill, but as much as I adore you, I bet you would end up shooting him."

Jill shrugged. "Problem solved."

Julie started laughing, Carlos just smiled. "You want me to do it instead Claire?"

"You can't." Julie spoke up again. "I didn't tell you this part, but he thinks you are probably the same as her now, on account of you not dying."

"What? That's ridiculous, doesn't he know it was the anti-virus?"

Claire decided to interrupt. "I'll talk to him. Let me get something to eat then I'll try to get him alone."

They parted ways, Carlos and Julie heading over to the fires to socialise, Clare and Jill to get dinner.

"You gonna be OK with talking to him?" Jill asked as they walked.

"Yeah, I don't think I can reason with him, but I have to at least hear him out. I just hope I don't have to hear him for long." She chuckled.

"Amen sistah!" Jill high fived her and they got their dinner in silence.

*/*/*/

Claire was heading back to her Hummer when Isaac approached her. She bit back a groan and smiled instead. "Hello Isaac."

"Miss Redfield. I would like to speak to you. I am gravely concerned with this situation."

No matter how many times she told him to call her Claire, he never did. She couldn't fathom whether it was respect, disgust or just to annoy her, but he never addressed her as anything other than 'Miss Redfield'. Claire hated it.

"I was heading to the Hummer, come with me, we can talk there."

They walked back in silence. Unlike the silence she had just shared with Jill, this time is was suffocating her, like he couldn't wait to launch into her. As they reached the back of her Hummer she opened the hatch and sat down on the back. "What can I do for you Isaac."

"Alice."

"What about her?" She tried to keep her tone neutral.

"It's not right."

Claire resisted a sigh. "Can you be a little more specific?"

"You know good and well what I mean. It's not right. She has no business being here."

"So you don't like that she is part of the convoy, is that it?"

"Miss Redfield I don't like that she part of this earth. She isn't human. I don't know what she is, but you cant allow her to just wander freely, we have children here. I've seen her around with your sister, the Blonde, she isn't safe to be around."

Claire didn't correct him about Kmart, she was too busy trying to control her temper that he refused to use Kmart's name and that his anger towards Alice was making her ill. She took a deep breath to reply and she didn't notice the shadow that appeared behind the Hummer just out of sight. Alice was watching, waiting to hear what the redhead would say.

"Kmart is perfectly safe around Alice, as I believe are the children, my question to you Isaac, is what do you propose I do about it?"

"You do what ever your conscience tells you to do. But she should be removed. At the very least from good, God fearing people."

"Isaac, I appreciate your concerns, but Alice is part of the convoy now and until she proves otherwise, I don't consider her a threat."

He looked at her, barely containing his disgust. "I had a feeling you would feel this way. One only has to see the way you look at her, fawning over her like a whore, the sly looks, it's unnatural, you should be ashamed."

Alice grabbed the side of the Hummer to stop herself from going out and punching the old man. She waited to hear Claire's response.

Claire's jaw dropped. "OK, firstly, no I don't!" She grimaced as she realised how childish that sounded. Alice had to hold her hand over her mouth to keep the laugh in at Claire's answer. "And secondly, let me ask you Isaac, when was the last raid you went on? When did you last risk your life for the people here? You've been here what? 5, 6 months? In that time how many times have you taken up arms to protect us? By my reckoning Alice has done it twice, she risked her life to save Carlos and came on a dangerous run to protect us yesterday. And how long has she been here? I appreciate your concerns but I think they are ill founded and you have nothing to worry about. I would also appreciate it if you would keep your opinions about things you know nothing about to yourself from now on, are we clear?" Claire's voice raised toward the end of her rant.

"She is ungodly Miss Redfield and had no place on Gods earth."

Claire huffed at him. "He should have thought of that before he made this mess."

Isaac was furious, he grabbed Claire's wrists and pulled her forward so their faces were inches apart. "Blasphemy is the greatest sin Miss Redfield, I suggest you watch your mouth."

Alice moved around the Hummer in plain sight as soon as he grabbed Claire. She didn't think he was much danger physically, but it only took a second to pull a weapon or be caught unawares. Kmart had also arrived and saw that the old man had grabbed Claire, Alice put her arm out to stop Kmart moving forward. Kmart grabbed hold of Alice's arm as she waited to see what would happen next.

Claire leaned further into him, grabbing his wrists right back, daring him to do something. "In deference to your age, I will refrain from beating the living shit out of you. But you ever lay your hands on me again, I will remove them permanently. Alice is staying, as long as she wants. You, can stay, as long as you want. But believe me when I tell you, it would be very easy to wake up quietly one day and leave without you, do I make myself clear Isaac?"

The old man saw the look of anger on the redheads face and the very obviously dangerous presence hovering behind her. He pulled away and walked off without a word.

Claire sighed and turned around. "Alice." She said in surprise. "How much did you hear?"

Alice shrugged as though it meant nothing, but her posture showed the very opposite. "Don't worry about it." She walked back into the dark.

"Shit!" Claire cursed her inability to talk normally around the stoic woman. Thankfully Jill showed up.

"You OK Claire, what's up with old religious nut bar?"

Claire laughed at Jill's bluntness. "He has a problem, well, he has several, Alice, my being gay, those are the top of the list anyway. Go check on Alice will you? He was pretty mean and I think she heard most of it."

Jill nodded and walked off to where Alice was cleaning her bike. Claire put her arm around Kmart and headed into the Hummer. C'mon K, lets go eat some chocolate."

*/*/*/

Three days later found the convoy heading north via San Antonio. Last night at dinner, Carlos suggested they go via the beach at Corpus Christi. They had been there on the way down to the desert but couldn't stop as it was too reachable for the undead and they could easily find themselves trapped in, unable to get out quickly. Carlos pointed out that with Alice around, they didn't have to worry. Claire was concerned that they were becoming too relaxed with Alice's abilities.

"C'mon Claire, a couple of days at the beach. Clean everyone up, relax a little, be good for morale. We're not getting lax, we would have stopped before but we had no way to see them coming. This time we do. Alice knows when they are there."

Claire looked around the fire and realised that everyone was waiting on exited tenterhooks for her reply. She sighed. "Fine. Couple of days at the beach, then we move on." The was a round of cheers and she interrupted them. "But! We still run the watch, I don't want everyone running around half naked relying on Alice, we keep the watch rotation and set up a perimeter, no one goes outside of it without prior permission." She relented.

So here they were, about to pull into Corpus Christi and Claire would be lying if she said she wasn't just a little excited. Going to the beach was never something she used to do or even want to do before, but when the world ends, you take the happiness where ever you can find it.

Kmart was running the radio today. She had relented on the teenage angst stuff after she dedicated a song to Alice, some God awful song about yearning and something, damn it was awful. Jill had 'called in' and ribbed her mercilessly about it. So now they were listening to some country music to get into the Texan spirit. Apparently.

"This is Kmart on Radio Apocalypse, letting you know we have food and supplies. We don't take requests anymore cos too many people with opinions that no one really wants to hear keep calling in. So a little something to get us in the mood, here's the Beach Boys."

Claire kept her eyes open as they pulled into Christi, she could see Jill still laughing in the truck behind her. Claire had a feeling that she would pay for her teasing of the teen. Kmart could play a mean practical joke when she wanted to, Claire had several paybacks that would attest to that.

Alice was riding slightly behind her. She had been riding off and around and generally keeping watch over the convoy. While she was immensely glad that Alice had taken to protecting them, she still couldn't get past her inability to think straight when Alice was around and had given up talking so as not to dig a hole for herself. She had looked over at Alice a couple of times while desperately pretending not to, both times the woman had smiled at her and Claire was thankful she didn't drive off the road.

*/*/*/

Alice sat on a rock looking over the goings on at the hastily set up camp. Otto had a large fire going and was ready to cook any fish or crabs that people found. Alice didn't need food as much as the others, but even she was looking forward to eating more than tinned vegetables for once. All the vehicles were stationed on the car park and the camp was set up within reach of them. True to her word, Claire had made them set up a perimeter and threatening blue murder to anyone that crossed it without permission. She had looked pointedly at Kmart when she said that. A couple of the guys were making makeshift fishing poles and trying their luck on the rocks slightly out to sea.

There were numerous rock pools that a few women had cleared of wildlife and turned into makeshift washing pools and every one took their laundry over. The only vehicle on the sand was the news truck that Mikey and his geek buddies used to run security, communications, Radio Apocalypse and movie nights. It now had some music blaring out of it that Kmart was using to lead the younger kids in some dance moves she was trying to teach them. It was so very domestic it made Alice ache. For just a minute, one could look around and see a group of people out on a day trip, not a desperate group of survivors living one more day at the end of the world.

Kmart had them all lined up, including Jill and Claire as she walked them through it. Jill was still trying to wind Kmart up and kept deliberately changing tempo so the kids would follow her, Claire was trying to keep up but her face was a picture of confusion.

Alice thought it was quite possibly the most adorable thing she had ever seen. Kmart suddenly rushed into the water, everyone stopped dancing to see what had interested her, she came back out carrying a large and probably angry crab, she took one look at Jill and a devilish expression came over her face. Jill saw it and started to back away. The raised voices reached over to where Alice sat.

"Kmart. Don't do it. I'm warning you K, don't."

Kmart held out the crab at arms length and with a burst of speed raced after Jill. The brunette was swearing up a storm as she ran down the beach away from Kmart. Claire was holding her sides laughing as all the kids were cheering Kmart on. After a few minutes Kmart gave up and took the crab over to Otto who dropped it in a bucket for later. Jill came up the beach grumbling.

"Gonna pay for that _Dahlia_." She used the girls name to annoy her.

"Oh you didn't." Kmart made to get her crab back and laughed as Jill ran off again.

Alice went back to her phone. It no longer worked for communication but Alice had kept it charged to play games on the long nights of being alone. Originally it had been Angie's, she had sat with the girl for hours at night while they traveled swapping the phone back and forth for 'turns'. When Angie had died, she didn't have any possessions to speak of, except the phone. Alice couldn't bring herself to leave it behind.

So there she sat, perched against a large rock glaring at the phone unable to complete the level.

"Whatcha doin?" A voice interrupted her thoughts. Alice looked up surprise to find Claire standing there. It wasn't that Claire avoided her, but the redhead was so 'off' around her it amused Alice no end. There was such an obvious attraction there, but she could do nothing about it while Claire insisted on putting her foot in her mouth whenever they spoke.

"I'm stuck on this damn level, I swear I've been doing the same one for days."

Claire leaned against the rock, almost touching the blonde but not quite. "Can I see?"

Alice handed the phone over and explained the point of the game. Claire stared at the screen, her face scrunched up in concentration as she tilted her head left and right trying to figure it out. "Oh, look, just turn it upside down and look at it that way." With that she turned it upside down, moved a few buttons and watched with satisfaction as the game made a musical sound and displayed the congratulation screen. She had a wide smile on her face as she handed the phone back to Alice.

A very grumpy Alice who just took the phone and mumbled "Thanks."

Claire looked at her in confusion before it suddenly hit her. "Are you sulking?"

Alice glared at her. "No!"

Claire started laughing. For once she had the upper hand around this confident and confusing woman. "You are! The great Alice, the Alice that bonded with the T-virus, that blow things up with her mind, the Alice that is the savior of the apocalypse is sulking!" Claire mocked her.

Alice couldn't keep her grumpy face up, it creased into a smile as she nudged against Claire. "Shut up."

Claire pointed to the phone. "You know, it was pretty easy really." She teased.

"Uh uh, keep it up Red."

Claire smiled. No one called her red, except Jill, but no one else dared. Hearing it from Alice, suddenly put them on an even playing field. She could finally talk to the damn woman without making an ass of herself.

"I used to play on the X-Box before all this, I was a total nerd gamer."

"I had a PlayStation. I spent most of my off days, such that I had, camped out on the couch playing the online war games, and the driving ones."

Claire laughed at the image of the put together Alice slumped in her pj's racing against a load of hormonal teenagers. "How long did you work security?" Claire asked, deliberately not mentioning Umbrella.

Alice sighed. "Felt like forever. I was in Law school when I first applied. I wasn't really getting on with the studying, it was kind of in one ear, out the other. I saw an ad, applied, ended up running half the company. What about you? I see you with the cars, were you a mechanic or did you just learn it?"

Claire nodded and looked out at the water. She smiled when she saw Kmart splashing away with the kids. "I had my own shop. Bikes though, but like everyone, I adapted. I was always pretty good with figuring things out." She nodded toward the phone.

Alice laughed. "You are huh. You miss your bike?" When Claire let out a groan and a yes. She had a plan. "Tell you what, next time we have to go somewhere, I'll let you use mine."

Claire's smile could have lit up the world. "You're on." She held out her hand to shake Alice's, when neither made a move to take their hand back the atmosphere changed. Claire stared at the woman before her and figured it was now or never, as they both leaned forward at the same time, Alice stopped and looked confused.

"What's wrong?" Claire asked, worried that Alice could sense something.

"I can hear something. It's a helicopter." She looked up the beach but couldn't see around the large cliff jutting out. "I'm gonna go check that out a minute."

Claire clamped down on her hormones, Alice senses had proven more than useful, she wasn't going to discount them now, no matter how annoying the timing.

"I'll go with you, grab your weapons, I'll get a radio and speak to Jill. Meet you by the bike?"

Alice nodded and they walked toward the others.

Claire grabbed a radio and explained to Jill what they were doing. She said that Alice didn't seem concerned just curious so she didn't think there was a problem. Jill agreed and Claire went off to the bike to meet Alice.

Alice grabbed her swords and a second radio just in case, she walked up the small slope to the car park and as she rounded the tanker that was blocking the main entrance, she stopped to take a breath.

Claire sat on her bike, sleeves rolled up, hair tied back, sunglasses on revving the bike gently. She smirked at Alice and nodded to the back of the bike. "Wanna be my bitch?"

Alice suddenly had an idea of what Claire had been going through these last few days as she walked up and climbed on the back.

She held on tight as Claire took them carefully but quickly down the beach away from camp.


	5. Chapter 5

Binsidebritsmind: Thanks muchly, doing my best.

PencilNeck: Watch more RE movies, this will help your predicament and make life worth living.

Cookie: Thank ye kindly, always nice to start with a bang I think.

PrincessLia: Good to hear. Jill is in a long term committed relationship with Bob. They have been together for ages and Jill can't imagine life without him.

RainbowUnicorn: Thank ye kindly.

Jovovich: Kartoffelkopf! Still waiting on Chap 8. Underlay! Dos Cervezas por favor.

Alexis: Praise from Ceaser. This chapter is all yours, enjoy your cornflakes.

*/*/*/

Alice spent the short ride concentrating on her hands and by force of will keeping them where they were.

Claire spent the short ride wishing Alice didn't have such scruples.

It took them about 10 minutes to reach where they were, the sand had kept the bike at a slow speed and Claire had no desire to put them back to where they were by crashing Alice's bike.

They turned another stretch of cliff and Claire pulled the brakes violently as they came in sight of what looked to be a large blue shipping container. Actually Claire took stock of the size and decided it looked like four containers stacked on top of each other.

Alice jumped off the back of the bike and walked forward curiously. She stopped about 10 feet away and sniffed the air. "Nemesis.."

Claire tilted her head as she walked up behind her. "What?"

"Fuck!" Alice screamed and jumped backwards. "Claire, get on the bike and get back to the camp."

Claire looked over at a very tense Alice drawing her swords. "What? No, I'm not leaving you, what's wrong? What's in that thing?"

In answer a large pounding began on the inside of the crate sounding impossibly loud in the deserted cove. Claire looked on in disbelief as what ever was inside the crate started making dents in the metal.

"Alice..."

"Claire go. Now!" Alice demanded.

Claire grabbed the radio at her hip. "Jill, Jill this is Claire, you read me?"

"I gotcha Red, what's happening, calling to say you might be a while?" Jill snickered into the radio.

"Jill get the convoy ready to go, now. We found something down here, no idea what, but it's about to show itself and Alice is nervous. What ever you do, don't come here. I mean it Jill, pack them up, I'll call you in a few. You see anything heading down this beach that isn't me or Alice, you get the fuck out. Take the Hummer and make Kmart ride with you."

"What the fuck is going on Claire."

Claire didn't have a chance to reply as the pounding that had built up momentum finally crashed through and stepped into the light.

"Jesus fucking Christ..." Claire almost dropped the radio. She hooked it back on her belt ignoring the frantic cries of Jill on the other end.

Alice didn't waste any time, she jumped at the thing before it had a chance to hit the sand. "Claire get out, get the others and get out. I'll find you."

Claire sat on the bike about to turn around when she looked at Alice. She was fighting something that must have been at least 9 feet tall. It was wearing scraps of leather sewn haphazardly together to form a kind of bizarre trench-coat. A large burlap sack was affixed to its head with bent nails that had stained the sack a rusty colour in parts. Claire couldn't decide if she was glad of that as she didn't want to think what it's face looked like. But the biggest worry right now was the giant mallet it held in it's hands. A giant mallet that was being swung with gigantic force toward Alice.

Tiny Alice.

She looked so small in comparison to this behemoth with its giant weapon. It reminded her of that hammer her mother used to beat the living daylights out of the steaks before they were cooked. On the other side was a giant blade that looked like it belonged in a guillotine. Claire had no idea if it was sharp or not, but the very size of it, wielded by the beast, would be enough to cut a man in two.

She turned the bike and made to ride away, unable to take her eyes off of Alice. The woman might well be superhuman, but leaving her here was causing rocks to form in Claire's stomach. She was about to force herself to leave when the giant brought the hammer in a sideways swipe directly into the frantically dodging Alice. It hit her with a sickening crunch and sent her flying into a pile of rocks.

Claire screamed. "Alice!"

The beast was heading toward the fallen Alice who showed no signs of consciousness.

No signs of life.

Claire jumped off the bike, drawing her weapons at the same time. She unloaded both hand guns, both with full extended clips of 19 bullets each.

38 shots, most of them heart and head shots.

It only registered enough on the thing to draw his attention from Alice to Claire.

Tiny Claire.

Unarmed and fully aware that if she made it back to the bike in time it would crush her before she could kick the gear down.

He swung the mallet at Claire and she rolled to the side, straight to her feet and ran at him. She had no idea what she would do when she got there, if 38 shots did nothing more than piss it off, she couldn't imagine that attempting to hit it would yield any success. But the closer she was, the less able it was to mash her into a puree.

She ran around it, thinking if not for the fighting for her life part, this would seem almost funny. As she ran past, trying to draw him away from Alice, she ran around the side of the rocks only to find herself at a dead end, the creatures panting letting her know he was close behind. She faked a hard left, then spun to the right and using the momentum ran across the sheer rock face at a 90 degree angle. She realised that she had to survive this, if only to tell Kmart. The young blonde would think it so cool. As soon as she stopped yelling at her.

She kept running as the giant realised she had gone back toward the crate.

He pounded after her, snorting.

Claire ran past where Alice lay still unconscious. If she could only grab Alice and get her on the bike, fuck it, throw her over the gas tank and get the fuck out. But the creature was too close, they would both be killed before she could lift Alice. She kept running past the bike when she heard a whistling, whoomping sound. She looked over her shoulder and silently screamed as she watched the axe heading directly for her. She ducked down, felt the air pressure as it sailed past and got up to keep running.

The bladed edge had lodged into some fallen rocks and before Claire could right herself, she ran directly into the handle. It knocked the wind out of her and left her disoriented. She looked up from the floor, blood running into her eye from a wound on her head, she shook it to clear her vision and wished she hadn't bothered. The beast was leaning over her, yanking the handle as it pulled the blade free. Claire was gagging at the stench of it, dried blood and death. It raised the hammer high above it's head and with a mighty roar that made Claire want to cover her ears, brought the weapon down onto the fallen redhead.

In that split second, Claire saw her death coming, she thought of Jill and Carlos, LJ and Betty, all of her friends. She conjured up an image of a laughing Kmart, an image of a smirking Alice.

In that split second, all that she despised about Umbrella and what it had done to the world became personified by this titan that intended to crush her as though she was of little consequence. She looked up at it, refusing to bow down to death.

"Fuck you." She snarled as she watched the hammer fall, refusing to close her eyes.

So close, so close that she could almost feel it, it stopped. The brute yanked at the handle in confusion but it wouldn't go any further forward.

"You kiss your mother with that mouth Red?"

Claire whipped her head to the left to where Alice stood, standing firm upon the sands.

Her beautiful eyes were clouded over with the pupils as she strained against the weight of the axe. With a flick of her eyes she sent the hammer flying over the creatures head into the rocks. The creature turned to its original prey, but one step in and Alice sent a shock-wave at it that sent it back about 10 feet, landing with a crash on its back. It raised itself up and headed forward only to be tossed back like a rag doll. Alice casually picked up her weapons and advanced on it. Throwing random energy blasts at it she drove it backwards until it came to rest in the dead end where upon she leapt at it, blades drawn.

Claire shook herself out of her daze and ran around to corner to watch as Alice attacked it with a vicious frenzy of blurred metal. She twisted and turned hacking it to pieces as she rained down hell and destruction. When the creature fell to it's knees, Alice dropped her swords and walked behind it. Grabbing the top of it's head and where she assumed the bottom would be, she wrenched it to the side with such force it twisted back to front.

She let go as it fell forward, its head landing at Claire's feet.

As romantic gifts went, Claire thought this one ranked up with the best.

"Are there more of them?"

Alice shook her head. "That helicopter dropped it here, one helicopter, one tanker." She took a deep breath through her nose. "There's nothing else for miles. We're safe now. Are you OK?" She gently touched Claire's shoulder.

Claire laughed. "Am I alright? I didn't just... Alice..." And she choked back a sob.

Alice pulled her in tight and let Claire cry out her relief.

After a few minutes. She pulled back slightly and with Alice's arm still around her they walked around the rock face to the bike, wanting to get the image of the creature out of sight. She picked up the Radio to call into the convoy.

Jill answered within seconds and she could hear Kmart yelling in the background. "What the fuck is going on Claire. Are you two OK?"

Claire swallowed. "Are you and Kmart in the Hummer?"

"Yes, now are you gonna tell me what's happening?" She snapped.

"False alarm Jill, sorry, we wanted to be sure. Can you send K out to the others and tell them it was a false alarm, tell them to go back to what they were doing."

Claire waited a few seconds. "Kmart is gone, she is telling them now. What happened?"

"I'll tell you more when I see you, suffice to say, Umbrella dropped a present on the beach, Alice neutralized it. We're both safe, we'll be back soon. Don't come out here or more importantly don't let anyone else come out here."

"You got it Red. You two crazy kids get your asses back here soon as you can OK?"

Claire nodded, even though Jill couldn't see her. "We will, keep them calm, tell them Alice wanted to be sure, there is no threat. Back soon." She broke off the comms.

She stood in the circle of Alice's arms, her hands absently running up and down Alice's sides. "I thought you were dead. I tried to shoot it, but it didn't even register. What the fuck is that thing?"

Alice sighed and pulled back slightly to look at Claire as she spoke. "When Umbrella infected me, they were running a program called Nemesis. They would inject the subjects with variations of the T-virus. Depending on the strain they used, depended on the type of mutations they expected. Nemesis was bi-pedal. They didn't have much luck with the first few, but I told you they had improved the T-virus, looks like this is the result."

"Why would they drop it here?"

"Honestly, I can only assume they left it for me."

Claire looked at her in horror. "What? Why? How could they know where you are?"

"I don't know. But I cant see why else they would drop it. Claire, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to put you and your people in danger." She lowered her eyes. "Let me get you back. I need to leave. I doubt that's the only one they have. It probably wont happen today, tomorrow, this month, but it will happen again." She started to disentangle her arms when Claire grabbed hold of her shirt.

"Don't leave."

"Claire I'm putting you in danger."

"What if you're wrong. What if they left this for you because they knew about the convoy. How many other groups of 100 survivors you think are left? There are probably pockets of humans all over the planet, but I doubt there are many like us. So if they knew where you were its because you were with us. If they can see us on their satellites, then they know you are here. If you leave, I have a feeling that we wouldn't last long before they targeted us anyway. You cant leave. We're stronger together. You may be stronger than anyone, but you can still be hurt. " Claire felt like a bad hallmark card. "It's a dangerous world now Alice, crazy ass redheads driving, titans." She laughed at the look of relief on Alice's face. "Besides, the convoy needs you."

Alice left her arms where they were, resting on Claire's hips. "The convoy does huh?" She winked.

Claire almost came undone again at that insufferable wink, she moved forward and breathed out her last words. "It really, really does."

Their lips crashed together as Claire ran her hands from the side of Alice's body to the front, pushing them up over Alice's breasts and roughly squeezing.

Alice gasped, breaking form the kiss and throwing her head back. Claire immediately latched onto the skin of Alice's throat, sucking hard on her pulse, not caring if she left a mark. Wanting to leave a mark.

Alice's hands moved form her back, along her arms to her head, she lifted Claire's head away from her throat and brought their mouths together again. She kissed her, wet, open mouthed kisses. Wet gentle kisses.

"I wont break you know." Claire whispered, pressing her fingers down on Alice nipples to prove a point.

Alice inhaled sharply. "I'm a little riled up from the fight. Trying to calm down a bit first."

Claire shook her head. "Alice, sometimes I think about making love to you, the two of us lying quietly somewhere, with you, gently sliding inside of me, whispering to me."

Alice gulped and tried to calm her racing heart down. She felt Claire's breath in her ear as she whispered to her.

"But right now, I want you to fuck me like you mean it."

Alice growled. She physically lifted Claire onto the large rock that they had been leaning against and pushed between Claire's thighs. She pushed Claire's hands away and drew her shirt down her arms. Grabbing the base of her t-shirt, she drew it up and threw it in the direction of the shirt before claiming the redheads mouth again. Claire's hands were grabbing hold of the different lengths of Alice's hair. She was kissing her deeply, aggressively, her hands roughly handling Claire's breasts. Claire tried to moan but found it impossible while Alice proceeded to take what she wanted. Claire tugged at the blonde hair in encouragement, she lifted her legs and wrapped them around Alice's waist, grinding against her wantonly. Alice broke away from the kiss and slapped at the inside of Claire's thighs.

"Put your legs down." She ordered.

Claire did so while trying to suck on Alice's neck. Alice let her do it and yanked the button open on her pants before roughly yanking them down. When they reached her knees she grabbed the back of Claire's hair pulling her head away.

She held Claire's hair tightly, making it clear that she was keeping her there. When she was sure Claire was focused fully on her, she kicked her legs apart as much as they would go with her pants and boots in the way and started running her fingers between her legs.

Alice never took her eyes away from Claire. She held her there physically and mentally and she stroked languidly back and forth. She brought her fingers up to her nose and inhaled deeply before sliding them into her mouth.

All the while watching her. Making her watch.

She moved her fingers back and started caressing the warm wet folds again. Claire thought she would explode. She was embarrassed to realise that it was entirely possible she was going to come within two minutes of being touched. Alice never took her eyes off her, staring at her with such intensity she was reminded of Isaacs comment about throwing herself at Alice like a whore and in that minute, she wanted nothing more than to do just that, abandon herself to pleasure at the end of Alice's fingers while she watched.

As if reading her mind, Alice kissed her almost violently, when she broke away, she moved her hands to Claire's hips and started moving her around to face the rock. With a rush of excitement Claire realised what Alice was going to do.

She bent her over the rock, grabbed hold of Claire's hair in it's ponytail, pulling her head back as far as she could so she could whisper in her ear.

"Hold onto something."

Claire reached over the rock and held onto the edge as Alice proceeded to fuck her like she meant it.

Claire had never been a vocal lover. She always thought that it was kinda crass to be constantly grunting and groaning, but with every deep thrust of Alice's left hand, she cried out in pleasure. She wanted to come. She wanted to beg Alice to make her come but words refused to form. She tried to press her hips against the stone, desperate for purchase but she couldn't find any. With Alice firmly in control, she simply held on tight and enjoyed the ride.

She could hear Alice panting heavily behind her as the exertion started to show, gradually the thrusting slowed down and Alice let go of her hair. She dropped forward resting her heated skin against the sun warm rock. Alice moved slightly to the side so she could be heard by Claire.

"You're so wet."

The fingers now sliding back and forth at a leisurely pace. She moved her right arm underneath Claire's prone body and started stroking her from the front. Claire felt her excitement sky rocket at the beginnings of her orgasm approached. She turned her head toward Alice, wanting to kiss her as she came.

"That's good." Alice whispered. "That's good. Make it easier to do this." She kissed Claire, dominating the red heads mouth as her left hand pulled out and she entered her again in a way that Claire had never experienced.

A guttural sound escaped Claire as Alice made her come while she took her ass.

Her body exploded with passion and she jerked violently against the rocks. As her nerve endings calmed down, Alice carefully removed her hands and wrapped the half naked Claire in her arms, kissing her gently across her face, mumbling nonsensical words as she waited for Claire to come back.

Alice slumped down into the sand, balancing the half naked convoy leader on her lap. Claire was pressed into her, kissing her, burying herself deeper into her safe haven. When she finally reached coherence she held onto Alice tightly.

"I hope you don't mind, but I really, really need a smoke before I return the favour."

Alice laughed and pulled a pack out of her pocket. She lit one up, took a drag and handed it over.

"Take as long as you want. I'm not going anywhere."

Claire looked at her seriously. "Promise?"

Alice knew she was asking about more than just the immediate. She smiled at her. "I promise."


	6. Chapter 6

The scene when they rode back into camp was the same as when they had left. All except for Jill who was hovering near the hummer nervously. She noticed the large red mark near Alice's throat and raised her eyebrow and looked at Claire.

"Please tell me we didn't go on a red alert so you could laid. Not that some wouldn't say it was getting to that stage, but still."

"Your such as ass. Where's K?"

Jill nodded toward the beach to where Kmart was sitting around the fire with the others. "So what really happened?"

Claire told her. Then she told her again when Jill's face registered disbelief. "I thought Matt was the only Nemesis?"

Alice shook her head sadly. "I stole a couple of drives from Umbrella when I was last there. Haven't had a chance to look at them, you think your boy Mikey can get into them?"

Claire looked over the sand where Mikey was playing football with... She wasn't sure what it was. "He's pretty good at what he does, give him the drive later, let him take a look."

"Can he be trusted to keep quiet? I don't want everyone knowing about this, you don't need people panicking."

"He knows to keep things to himself. Even from his little geek buddies." Jill answered.

"I'll go talk to him now. Carlos needs to hear about this afternoon as well." Claire said as she wandered off.

When Jill was left alone with Alice she smirked. "So, is Claire a natural redhead?"

Alice laughed. "Yeah, about that."

Jill shrugged. "Maybe she will stop breaking shit and falling over every time you look at her now."

"I hope not."

"Don't hurt her Alice. I mean it. These people rely on her. She hasn't looked at another person since I've known her. She must think a lot of you."

"I told her I should leave. If Umbrella are dropping these things in my vicinity you can bet it wasn't random."

"Bullshit. I bet it wasn't random, but you really think if you leave they're gonna leave this convoy alone?"

"That's what Claire said."

"So you are staying? You better fucking stay."

Alice laughed again. "When did you get so forward? Oh that's right, the minute you were born."

Jill glared at her.

"I'm staying. I think you're right. Maybe it was meant for me, maybe it was meant for you, who knows, but me leaving isn't going to save them." Alice sat down heavily on the back of the Hummer. "Besides, I'm so fucking tired of running. This set up? Right here? It's the closest thing to a home I've seen anyone have since this first happened. That's gotta be worth fighting for. Been a long time since I found anything that was. I wont leave her. Any of you." She smiled at Jill.

"Kmart's coming, you think she figured out you banged Claire? Wanna make out, it will totally freak her out."

"Claire's right. You are an ass."

Jill just hugged her.

*/*/*/

"No, no look, it's more of a pull and twist, like this." Alice moved her hand around Claire's head to show her what she meant.

"Oh, oh, right, I get it, c'mere, let me try." Claire swapped their positions and stood behind Alice, her arms draped over the blonde as she put the lesson into practice.

It was the second day on the beach. Claire had said they were going to spend one more night here then move up the East coast. Claire had seen Kmart to the Hummer last night and she and Alice had snuck off to the sand dunes where they spent the hours in each others arms. Shortly before dawn, she had dropped Claire off at the Hummer for a few hours sleep.

The convoy spent the night laying out in the sand with the watch changing every few hours. Now they were mostly just enjoying the last day of peace before they hit the road again. No one commented on the convoy leader disappearing for a few hours yesterday, although Claire could swear she got a few more smiles.

They were sitting on the rocks near the cliffs in the early afternoon when Jill and Kmart walked up to them.

"Whatcha doin?" Kmart asked.

Claire smile at her. "Alice is teaching me how to kill zombies if I lose my weapon."

"You gonna hug them to death? Neat." Jill scoffed and Kmart giggled.

"She showing me how to snap their necks actually." Claire responded.

"She is? You two are disgustingly cute, I thought Alice wasn't a romantic. Yet here she is, teaching her girlfriend how to break spines. If that isn't love I don't know what is." She put her hand on her heart and sighed dramatically.

Claire leaned back between Alice's legs as Alice spoke over her shoulder. "You spend too long with Bob, perhaps he's run out things to teach you." Alice threw at her.

"You've met Bob?" Kmart asked excitedly.

Everyone mumbled and suddenly found other things to talk about.

"Anyway, moving swiftly along! Alice? Mikey is about ready to crack that disk you gave him. He asked me to send you two down." Jill started walking back dragging Claire with her.

Kmart hung back to talk with Alice. "Do I have to give you the speech about not making Claire cry?" She asked seriously.

Alice shook her head. "No, you don't. I wont make her cry, I promise." She replied just as seriously.

"Oh. OK. I had it all planned out you know?"

Alice put her arm around the young blonde and ruffled her hair. "Well go right ahead then."

They caught up to Jill and Claire just as Mikey finished the last lines of coding. "OK peeps, here goes nothing." He ran the code and sat back to wait.

"Kmart do me a favour, go keep an eye on the kids down there and send Carlos up." Claire asked.

Kmart rolled her eyes but left them to it anyway. Mikey pressed a few more buttons and a list of documents appeared on screen. Carlos arrived as Alice was scrolling through. "You find anything?" He asked.

"More than I wanted, yes. According to these messages going back and forth between the few remaining hives, life below ground isn't living up to expectations. They want to take back the surface, clear out a few towns and cities and set up barricades to keep the undead out. That Nemesis Project we ran into yesterday is part of a group they have ready. The plan is that the Nemesis take out the undead, then Umbrella take out the Nemesis, one giant undead is a hell of a lot easier to find that a 1000 small ones."

"So why drop it on the beach?" Carlos asked reasonably. "No undead for miles."

"I'm guessing they were killing two birds with one stone. Take out Alice and the convoy, then let it loose in the town. Training." Jill offered.

Alice nodded her agreement. "It mentions those birds in here actually. They were engineered by Umbrella and let loose in the desert. They were supposed to find pockets of undead and, well, eat them I guess. Umbrella chipped them to make them easier to find. When I killed them, they pointed the satellites in this area to see what happened and found you."

"Does it say how many of these things there are?" Claire asked.

"They are engineering them in a facility in Colorado. So far they have three. The project is headed up by..." Alice scrolled down and froze. "Samuel Isaacs."

"Shit." Jill snapped through gritted teeth.

"Who's Samuel Isaacs?" Claire asked.

When no one responded she looked at Alice who sat rigidly in the chair. Claire sighed, she had a feeling she knew what was coming next. "Can you give us a minute guys?"

Jill, Carlos and Mikey left the van to go and join everyone on the beach.

"I don't suppose me asking you to not go would do any good?" Claire asked.

Alice took a deep breath. "There is no one in Umbrella with his knowledge. I take him out, Umbrellas progress is completely derailed. Plus I have a rather personal bone to pick with him."

Claire didn't respond, she was trying to pick her next words carefully. Alice wrapped her arm around Claire's waist and pulled her down to sit on her lap.

"I don't want to go." She kissed the redhead.

"Then don't."

"It's not that easy. "

Claire tried to pull away but Alice held her firmly in place. "Yes Alice it is."

"What if I took Jill?"

"What if you took me?"

Alice laughed. "And Kmart, cos she isn't going to sit back and watch you leave. I already had the 'better not hurt her' speech."

Claire smiled. "I think she was practicing that in her sleep last night. Was it good?"

Alice shrugged. "I was scared. Scared enough to not do anything stupid. But that facility needs to be destroyed Claire. Your people will never be safe if he is allowed to finish his work. Let me take Jill, we can travel together to Oklahoma, Jill and I can head off to Colorado and meet you back in St Louis. We'll be gone no more than 10 days."

"You promise you will come back?" Claire bit her lower lip.

"Wild zombies wont keep me from you." Alice replied and kissed her again.

"Mmm, wanna head out to that cove, make sure there are no more of those things creeping around?"

"I'll get the bike, you tell the others?"

"Do I get to drive this time?"

Alice looked at her. "You drove last time."

Claire smirked. "So not what I meant."

*/*/*/

"Damn but you are good at that." Alice looked down her naked body to a smirking red head.

"Well, I cant take all the credit." Claire replied, kissing the inside of Alice's thigh. "Bob's cousin deserves some of it. Cant believe at the end of the world and you and Jill raid a sex store. I think that speaks volumes about you."

Alice laughed and pulled her up so they were facing each other. "I think it says we are smarter than your average survivor. At least I didn't get the vibrating one. Poor Carlos, I'm surprised he got any sleep, that fucking thing sounded like a pneumatic drill in the quiet of the desert. Didn't matter how far away she went, you could hear it, was so funny. Carlos would be tossing and turning and trying to cover his head up. LJ just slept through it all. It didn't help that she would just stroll back into the camp and quite calmly announce how much better she felt."

Claire burst out laughing. "You better bring her back in one piece. After the initial wanting to kill her phase, I don't know what I would have done without her around to break the stress up."

Alice lit a cigarette up and passed it to Claire. "I have to persuade her to come first."

Claire turned over so her back was to Alice. "I think I would have a harder job persuading her to stay. I wouldn't worry about that if I were you." She exhaled loudly. "Making love on a beach always sounds so romantic, no one mentions the sand."

Alice got a gleam in her eye and started to get up. "Well we cant have that can we." She grabbed Claire and started carrying her to the water. "Alice don't you dare. I mean it. Alice!" Claire was laughing and slapping at Alice's shoulders.

"Oh you dare me?"

"No! I don't dare you. Alice! I mean it."

"Stop wriggling, I'm gonna drop you if you don't keep still. Here, lets try this." Alice hefted Claire over her shoulder fireman style and carried on to the waters edge with Claire raining blows on her back.

"I swear to God you will pay for this. Woman, put me down!"

"Oh you did not just woman me." Alice brought her hand down with a resounding smack.

Claire yelped. "You're a dead woman Alice. Alice!" She started laughing again as Alice ran forward.

"Claire, Claire you read me?" Jill's voice came over the radio.

Alice stopped and put Claire back down. Claire pointed her finger at the laughing Alice. "Start running Blondie. Hey Jill, I read you, what's up, everything OK?"

There was a silence before the radio finally clicked again. "Claire we cant find Kmart."

Claire sobered instantly. "What do you mean 'cant find'? You checked the Hummer, what about in your truck, she often takes a nap in there with you, did you check there?"

"Claire you need to get back here, not to be a drama queen, but I looked everywhere before I called. I cant find her. There's no sign of anything attacking the convoy. One of the kids saw her heading toward the vehicles with Nathan. Claire, Nathan is missing as well."

"Roger that, we'll be there in five. Claire out."

Alice was already mostly dressed, she threw their gear together and was ready to leave as Claire finished dressing. "Who's Nathan? He that boy with the religious family, the one that Jill doesn't like?"

"That's him." Claire was frantically pulling her jeans on.

"You think they snuck off? Does she like him?" Alice started the bike.

"No, she used to, she was crushing on him for a while, but they fell out."

"Why? Did he do something?" Alice did not look happy.

"Not exactly, they were talking and he made it quite clear how he felt about my lifestyle. He was asking about me, before the apocalypse, was I married, that kind of thing. Kmart told him I was gay, he didn't respond well, Kmart let him have it with both barrels." Claire smiled at the memory of the teen defending her honour. "Damn Alice you should have seen her, she was shaking she was so angry." She climbed on the back of the bike. "I swear if she has wandered off I'm gonna kill her."

Alice saw it for what it was. She pulled Claire's arms around her tightly. "C'mon, lets go yell at Kmart." They sped off up the beach toward the camp.

*/*/*/

"Check again. Sergei take a couple of guys and check up there on the cliff, Carlos, you read me, any sign yet?" Jill was pacing around the truck barking out commands as Claire and Alice roared up.

"Nothing so far, I'm gonna go a little further, but I don't see any tracks."

"When did you see her last?" Claire jumped off leaving Alice to the bike.

"Couple of hours past, maybe more. One of the kids she was playing with on the sand said she walked over toward the bus back there."

"Shit. Where the hell did she go?" Claire looked around trying to imagine where the girl might have gone.

Alice was standing behind them taking deep lungfuls of the air as Isaac casually strolled up to the Hummer.

"We used to keep hunting dogs, they never could catch a scent around water. It seems your lapdog is the same." He nodded toward Alice.

"Perhaps your time would be better spent looking for your son." Jill interjected before Claire got any more wound up.

"No need. He's quite safe. The lord protects the righteous."

Claire looked at him with a sinking feeling. "Isaac, where is your son?"

His face took on an ugly expression and he sneered at her. "It seems Miss Redfield, that if you want your sister back, that our previous conversation about the company you keep requires revisiting."

Alice barely had time to grab Claire as she launched herself forward.


	7. Chapter 7

A/n I'm finished with this now, hope you enjoyed the ride, I wanted to get back into the swing of writing again, it seems to have done the trick, so thanks for being a willing audience.

Look out for a spin off "Resident Evil: Bob's adventures"

Au revoir!

*/*/*/

"Damn it let me go!" Claire pulled out of Alice's grasp and turned her back to get some semblance of control. She took several deep breaths before turning to face Isaac.

Jill was standing next to Alice ready to catch Claire if she got past Alice even if every bone in her body was screaming at her to shoot the man.

"What do you want?"

"I want that abomination gone. None of us are safe while she is here. She goes, now, and you get your sister back."

Claire looked at him and nodded. "Alright. But if you hurt her, all bets are off. Alice leaves now, I want Kmart back within one hour."

No one moved. Jill looked at Claire like she was mad, Alice didn't say a word.

"How do I know you will keep your word?" Isaac asked uncomfortably. "My son was acting on my instruction, how do I know he will be safe?"

"Well now you should have thought that through before you started your fucking games. You have my word Isaac, the whole convoy is listening even though most of them are pretending not to, so here's the deal Kmart is back here unharmed within one hour and you will never see Alice again and your son will not come to any harm from me or anyone here, good enough?" She yelled at him.

He nodded and scurried away. Jill came charging at Claire as Alice walked away. "What the fuck are you doing?" She grabbed Claire's arm roughly.

Claire snatched it back. "What I have to." She watched Isaac go back to his family. "I don't trust him, Kmart will be back within an hour, but Alice isn't safe around him."

"Fine, then I vote we shoot him." Jill shrugged as though this was the most reasonable course of action.

Had the situation not been so dire she would have laughed. "Jill I need you to sneak around back and start running, don't let anyone see you leave. Take a radio, set it to channel 6 and head towards town."

"That's it? That's your brilliant plan? Jesus H Christ, If I knew that Alice was so talented in bed that she could turn your brain to jelly I would have slept with her first."

Claire smirked at her. "In your dreams cupcake. Just go, don't be seen, but go now. I promise this will make sense."

Jill shook her head but moved around the vehicles out of site.

Next was Alice. She was standing by her bike putting her bags on the back and tying them down. Claire walked over, making sure she was out of earshot. Keeping her voice down, she put her hands in her pockets and slumped over, giving the impression of awkward for anyone watching.

Isaac kept his eyes on Claire, he watched with a smug satisfaction as the red head approached Alice. He watched Alice's body language remain tight. She was putting bags on her bike and getting ready to leave. He watched as she refused to talk to Claire. Claire moved away from Alice and approached Carlos. There was a loud roar as Alice sped away on the bike leaving a spray of sand behind her. Finally Claire walked back to him, he could read her body language, she had kept her word. That creature was gone. Hopefully with the loss he could persuade Carlos to take over the running of the convoy. Women had no business ordering people around and fighting, it wasn't the natural way of things. When God had seen fit to end the world as it was known, Isaac knew he had been spared for a reason and he was fairly certain that didn't involve taking orders from a woman.

"Where's Kmart?" It was Carlos that addressed him. Perhaps having him take over would be easier than he thought.

"She will be back soon."

"The deal was an hour." Claire snapped at him. "Now where is she?"

Isaac pointed out toward the rock pools that went further out to sea. "There are two small caves just out of sight. We found them yesterday. As soon as the tide goes out, they can be reached. Just a little more patience." He had the audacity to smile at her.

"Kmart can swim, give the order now."

He smiled again but before he could speak, Carlos was in his face. "Give the order."

Isaac swallowed and took a step back. He turned away and lifted the radio to his face, mumbling instructions into it. "They are heading back now. I'm sorry it came to this Miss Redfield, but it is for the best. Perhaps if you were not so blinded you would have seen that. You might consider your position here and whether some one else might be better suited to lead." He looked toward Carlos.

Claire nodded at Carlos and they walked away in separate directions. Carlos walked toward where the convoy was sitting around going about their day as the drama unfolded around them. He spoke to Betty, presumably to have her on stand by when Kmart came back. Claire walked back to the Hummer to wait.

She had been staring out toward the sea for about 10 minutes when she heard a rustling sound from the side of the vehicle. She jumped down and pulled a gun out, quickly holstering it when she saw the young girl standing there. What was her name? Joanne? Josephine? She had only heard Kmart refer to her as JoJo Bear, she was pretty certain that wasn't her actual name, though Kmart was hardly the norm.

"I'm sorry about Kmart Miss Redfield. I swear I didn't know what he was doing." She looked wide eyed at Claire. "Honest, I would have told you. Kmart is always so sweet to me. She's gonna be OK isn't she?"

Claire gulped her words back, she smiled at the girl. "I'm sure she is, it wasn't your fault."

JoJo moved closer now she knew she wasn't in trouble. Claire nodded over toward Isaac. "He your father?" She was starkly aware that she didn't know as much about the people she led as she should be. Time to change that soon enough. Perhaps having Carlos take over a little more wasn't a bad thing.

The little girl shook her head. "He was our pastor when I was little."

Claire smiled at the three foot high child. "When you were little eh?"

JoJo nodded seriously again. "My daddy died and my momma took me and my brother with the pastor and his family and some of the other church people."

Claire looked at the small group with Isaac. "That your momma?"

"She died, with my brother."

"I'm sorry."

"It's OK, I'm not alone. I have everyone here, they're all nice. Specially Sergei, he gave me a bear." And the girl beamed at her.

Claire forced a smile as the girl ran off. "Shit." This was going to put a crimp in her plans.

*/*/*/

She finally saw a blonde head of hair in the water after what felt like forever. Betty was standing on the shore with Julie waiting for them armed with several blankets and her medical bag.

Claire stubbed out the last of what was about 8 cigarettes she had smoked back to back and she paced on the shoreline.

Kmart stood up and waded the rest of the way in and Claire had to fight the urge to wade out to her. When Kmart finally came out, she noticed the bruise on the side of her face. Claire saw red.

Kmart rushed over as Betty tried to cover her in blankets. "I'm alright. It's OK." She said grabbing Claire's hands before she could do anything hasty. "He didn't hurt me."

Claire touched the side of her face near the bruise and raised her eyebrow.

"Well, he hit me, but I hit him back, he didn't do it again." She smiled proudly.

"Atta girl K." Claire pulled her into a hug and squeezed her until Kmart couldn't breath.

"Where's Alice?"

"C'mon, we can talk later, lets make sure you are alright." Claire looked over to where Isaac was smiling at his son, clapping him on the shoulder with pride. It made her ill.

"What? Why? He did it didn't he? He made her leave. Nathan said that his father was going to get rid of Alice. Did he hurt her?"

"No, he didn't hurt her, but he made it clear he didn't want her around. C'mon K, lets get out of here."

Kmart spun around toward Isaac and shoved him hard, he fell backward into the water with a splash. "You're a fucking asswipe." She yelled at him.

"Whoa, calm down slugger." Claire led the fuming girl away from a sputtering Isaac and left him to his family. "And what's with the language? Asswipe?"

"Jill taught me that. Where is she anyway?" Kmart looked around.

Claire sighed. "Of course she did. Let's get you dry and I'll tell you what you missed."

They walked away with Betty and Julie following behind.

She picked up the radio, turned it to channel 6 and spoke. "Jill, you read me?"

"Go ahead Claire."

"Kmart's back, she's safe, she with me know."

"Roger that. Five minutes, Jill out."

"Julie stay with Kmart in the hummer for a few minutes please."

Julie nodded and started leading Kmart away. "Claire?"

"Get some dry clothes on. I wont be a minute." She walked over toward Isaac, catching Carlos eye she nodded at him.

Carlos started hoarding everyone up toward the buses. It was almost comical watching people load back onto the greyhounds like they were just finished with a day at the beach. As she reached Isaac she stopped and titled her head listening.

"Miss Redfield. What's going on, I thought we were staying another night?"

There was a roar in the background and a second sound of a diesel vehicle alongside it. After a few seconds. Alice pulled up next to the Hummer, parked the bike and got off just as a small blonde came flying out of the hummer into her arms. Julie smiled and moved over toward the bus to take her place inside.

Isaac rounded on Claire. "You gave your word Miss Redfield. Perhaps Carlos will be more understanding."

Alice came over quietly and stood behind Claire. "Firstly, I run this convoy, me. Secondly, I kept my word." She pointed at the minibus that Jill had just stepped out of. "There's food, water and weapons in there, enough to keep you until you find more. I gave you my word that you wouldn't have to see Alice again. My word is kept, after today, you wont. It's my responsibility to keep these people safe, including you and your son. I can no longer guarantee your safety."

She looked at him without feeling. Her eyes caught a small face looking at her. She smiled at JoJo and nodded. The little girl moved away from the group toward the greyhound bus. Isaac went to grab her back when he heard the sound of at least 8 different guns being cocked. He looked up and found himself looking down the barrel of a pistol held by a very angry Russian. "Do not." Sergei took the girls hand and led her to the truck that he shared driving duties with Carlos.

The numerous vehicles started their engines and Claire turned her back to him. "Goodbye Isaac."

She led Kmart back to the Hummer leaving Carlos and Alice behind.

Isaac looked at her with disgust. "You."

Alice sneered at him. "Claire could never hurt your son. She isn't that kind of person. She's a good person, despite what you think, and she will do anything for these people." She got in his face making him stumble backwards. "But I'm not like that. I'm the monster you think I am, only far, far worse. I ever see you again, I will not only shoot your son, I will shoot your whole family and I will sleep like a baby afterward. We're heading north. I suggest you don't."

She handed the bike keys to Carlos. "Take this for a while. I'm gonna drive the hummer tonight, I don't think Claire is going to let go of Kmart long enough to drive."

Carlos nodded and they walked away.

*/*/*/

As Alice had suspected, Kmart stayed curled up on Claire with her feet on Alice's lap as she drove, the pair of them sleeping soundly, wrapped in a blanket with the occasional snore that made Alice chuckle.

She made her way up the darkened roads toward their target area. "Jill you read me." She spoke quietly.

"I read you, we ready to pull over?"

"Yep, keep people inside for a while, I'm gonna walk around make sure it's safe."

"Will do. Jill out."

Alice pulled over and turned the engine off. "Hey sleepy." She ran her hands through Claire's hair and waited for her to wake up.

"Mmm hi." Claire smiled at her. "We here?" She looked around but couldn't see anything in the dark. After a few seconds, the other vehicles pulled up nearby flooding the area with light.

"I'm gonna wander around make sure it's all clear. Give me 10 minutes, then you can start getting people settled OK?"

Claire nodded at her and smiled. Alice leaned over and pressed her lips against the sleepy redhead.

"Ewww, gross. I'm just a child you know." Kmart interrupted them.

"You're old enough to call someone an asswipe, you can deal with it." Claire pinched the young blonde making her giggle.

Alice got out and started her patrol, locking the doors behind her.

"So are you and Alice like a poster lesbian couple now? Is she moving in with us? We should totally have got a u-haul."

"Ha ha ha, very funny." Claire rolled her eyes. "You OK with that?"

"Are you kidding. Alice is so cool." She looked in the back of the hummer. "Not really room for all of us in there. Do you need me to move into the bus?" Kmart looked at her with wide fearful eyes and she remembered the comment about the lack of bathing.

"You are such a blonde. We'll figure something out. We're moving toward warmer areas. Maybe we can get a tent like some of the others. You however are staying in the hummer." Claire mock glared at her.

"Damn right, I don't wanna hear you drooling all over Alice at night."

"Watch it K, I haven't ruled the bus out yet."

Kmart shuddered.

Alice opened up the door. "All clear. Nothing around for miles. "You'll be safe here tonight, tomorrow we can see what's around and whether we need to move on."

Claire started giving commands over the radio and the camp setup several hours later than they would normally.

No one complained.

*/*/*/

A week later and the convoy was camped outside of a town near Oklahoma. Carlos and Sergei had been out hunting and everyone had sat down for dinner around the main fire handing out compliments to Otto and his team. As they all started to settle in for the night, Jill and Alice were off to the side of the woods going over the last minute plans for their trip tomorrow.

Claire and Kmart walked over as they were finishing up.

"You have everything you need?" She asked.

Jill nodded. "I promise I will bring her back safe and sound in about 10 days. We have the rendezvous spot marked, Alice and I will take her bike, we were gonna pick up a truck but Alice thinks it might be easier to stay fast and easy to disappear again."

"Alice is right." Claire smiled at her lover. "Alright, if you are finished, I'm gonna get Kmart settled for the night. Alice you want to patrol one last time?"

Alice smirked at her. Jill and Kmart flat out laughed. "Alice you are such a keeper. You have a nice comfy tent outside the Hummer and you insist on dragging your girlfriend out into the woods to fool around."

Claire blushed to the roots of her hair and Alice mumbled something about leaving Jill in Colorado.

"C'mon K." Jill dragged the teen off toward the hummer. "I'll get K settled, you guys go 'patrol' and I'll see you in the morning." She and Kmart made the air quotes and laughed.

Claire and Alice walked off into the woods. When they reached a distance away from the camp fires Claire started talking first. "Promise me Alice. I want you and Jill back in ten days or I swear I will come looking for you." She pushed Alice up against a nearby tree.

Alice moved her arms around the redhead and pulled her into her body. "Ten days. No longer." She kissed her, driving her tongue past Claire's lips making it clear that they were done talking.

Claire leaned back and took a lungful of air. "You better. Now, you know the drill."

Alice pulled back and looked at her in question.

Claire grabbed a handful of fabric and pulled her back, whispering into her ear. "Fuck me like you mean it."

Far off into the distance, a sound like that of a pneumatic drill could be heard in the woods.

Fin


End file.
